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* 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS 


\ 


THE  ILLUSTRATION 

OF  BOOKS  A MANUAL 

FOR  THE  USE  OF  STUDENTS, 
NOTES  FOR  A COURSE  OF 
LECTURES  AT  THE  SLADE 
SCHOOL,  UNIVERSITY  COLLEGE 

BY 

JOSEPH  PENNELL 

LECTURER  ON  ILLUSTRATION  AT 
THE  SLADE  SCHOOL,  UNIVERSITY 
COLLEGE,  AUTHOR  OF  “ PEN 
DRAWING  AND  PEN  DRAUGHTSMEN,” 

“MODERN  ILLUSTRATION,”  ETC 


NEW  YORK  : The  CENTURY  COMPANY 

LONDON;  T.  FISHER  UNWIN 
PATERNOSTER  SQUARE  1896 


Copyrighted  in  U.S.A. 
by 

Joseph  Pennell. 
Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall. 


CONTENTS 


LECTURE  I. 

PAGE 

WHAT  IS  ILLUSTRATION  ? . . . .1 

LECTURE  II. 

THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILLUSTRATOR  . . 1 4 

LECTURE  III. 

METHODS  OF  DRAWING  FOR  REPRODUCTION  JN 

LINE  . . . . . .33 

LECTURE  IV. 

1 

THE  REPRODUCTION  OF  LINE  DRAWINGS  . * 65 

LECTURE  V. 

THE  MAKING  OF  WASH  DRAWINGS  AND  THEIR  RE- 
PRODUCTION BY  MECHANICAL  PROCESS  . 80 

LECTURE  VI. 

REPRODUCTION  OF  DRAWINGS  BY  WOOD  ENGRAVING  93 


VI 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  VII. 

PAGE 

LITHOGRAPHY  . . . . .112 


ETCHING 

LECTURE  VIII. 

. 123 

LECTURE  IX. 

THE  PRINTING  OF  ETCHINGS  . . . 1 44 


PHOTOGRAVURE 

LECTURE  X. 

AND  PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHY,  ETC.  . 1 55 

LECTURE  XI. 

MAKING  READY  FOR  THE  PRINTING  PRESS  . l6o 


Some  of  these  Lectures  ivere  printed  in 
the  “ Art  Journals  and  they  are  republished 
by  permission  of  the  Editor. 


PREFACE. 


'THESE  lectures  were  delivered  in  the 
Slade  School ' University  College , at 
the  request  and  suggestion  of  Professor  F. 
Brown , and \ I believe , first , 

among  the  firsts  serious  attempts  in  this 
country  to  point  oiit  all  the  various  methods 
of  making  and  reproducing  drawings  for 
book  and  newspaper  illustration 

Since  they  were  first  delivered \ now  some 
three  winters  ago , cozirses  of  lectures  on 
illustration , and  classes  for  instruction  in 
drawing  and  engraving  have  been  started 
in  almost  all  art  schools. 

It  seemed  to  me>  therefore , that  a small 
manual  on  the  subject  might  be  useful. 


X 


PREFA  CE. 


There  is  no  attempt  in  this  book  to  define 
A rt,  or  even  to  tell  the  student  how  to 
draw ; that  he  learns  in  his  ordinary 
school  work . Still  less  is  there  any  endea- 
vour to  dictate , or  even  suggest , any  especial 
style , or  manner  of  handling , or  technique . 

But  illustration  is,  up  to  a certain  point , 
a mechanical  craft , which  must  be  learned, 
and  can  be  learned,  by  any  one.  And 
ignorance  of  the  requirements  and  absolute 
necessities  are  evident  all  around  us. 

The  book,  therefore,  might  rather  be  de- 
scribed as  a series  of  tips  or  hints  — to 
put  it  on  as  low  a plane  as  possible — the 
result  of  practical  experience,  which  should 
enable  the  student  to  make  his  drawings  so 
that  they  will  produce  a good  effect  on  the 
printed  page ; but,  first  of  all,  he  must  be 
able  to  make  the  drawing  well.  No  one 
can  teach  him  that ; but  he  can  be  taught 
what  materials  he  should  use,  where  he  can 


PREFA  CE. 


xi 


get  them , and  how  he  should  employ  them . 
That  is  all  I have  tried  to  do. 

As  I have  said  in  this  book  repeatedly , 
pi'ocesses  are  discovered  and  perfected 
almost  daily.  Since  these  lectures  were 
last  given , the  method  of  etching  zinc  and 
copper  half-tone  blocks  has  been  entirely 
revolutionised.  Now , there  is  no  inking 
up  of  plates  ; the  photograph  on  the  metal 
serves  as  a protecting  and  acid-resistmg 
ground,  a7id  the  biting  is  done  as  simply 
as  in  ordinary  etching;  though , of  course , 
it  is  the  lines  or  dots  which  are  left  in 
relief. 

Possibly  before  the  book  is  out , even 
greater  improvements  and  developments  may 
be  made. 

Nor  have  I attempted  to  describe  all  the 
tricks , dodges , and  clever  schemes  e7nployed 
77 1 nezvspaper  offices  for  znaking  blocks  from 
photographs , or  for  the  rapid  reproduction 


Xll 


PREFACE. 


of  sketches , stick  as  drawing  on  lithographic 
transfer  paper , making  photographic  en- 
largements on  fugitive  prints.  All  are 
most  useful  and  vahiable  in  their  way , but 
not  exactly  what  one  ivould  tell  a student 
to  do.  If  he  becomes  an  illustrator  he  will 
learn  these  things  fast  enough. 

As  the  book  is  passing  through  the  press 
Mr.  W.  Lewis  Fraser , the  art  manager  of 

“ The  Century  ” magazine , writes  me  that 

/ 

he  thinks  it  “a  good  practical  book , likely 
to  be  of  much  use  to  the  young  illustrator , 
and  save  the  art  editor  many  a pang  and 
many  a sorrow / hope  so,  and  it  is  with 
this  hope  that  the  book  is  published. 

JOSEPH  PENNELL. 

London,  Oct.,  1895. 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 

LECTURE  I. 

WHAT  IS  ILLUSTRATION ? 

| • 

' I 'HE  craving  for  pictures,  that  is,  for 

illustrations,  is  as  old  as  the  world. 

The  cave-dweller  felt  it  when  he  scratched 

on  the  walls  of  his  house,  or  carved  the 

handle  of  his  battle-axe ; one  there  was 

“ who  stayed  by  the  tents  with  the  women, 

and  traced  strange  devices  with  a burnt 

Stick  upon  the  ground.”  Others  painted 

3 * 


2 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


themselves  blue,  and  were  beautiful  ; and 
these  were  the  first  illustrators. 

The  Egyptians  were  the  most  prolific, 
and  their  works  may  be  found,  monuments 
more  durable  than  brass,  not  alone  in  their 
places,  but  scattered  to  all  the  corners  of 
the  earth. 

From  the  Egyptians  and  the  Assyrians 
we  may  skip,  offending  but  the  archaeologist 
and  the  pedant,  to  the  illuminators  who 
threw  their  light  on  the  Dark  Ages.  They 
changed  their  methods  from  carving  to 
tracing,  and  their  mediums  from  stone  and 
papyrus  to  parchment  and  vellum. 

But  always  these  illustrations  were  single 
works  of  art,  they  were  not  reproduced, 
and  only  duplicated  by  copying  by  hand. 

Beautiful  as  are  the  manuscripts,  they 
play  but  a small  and  unimportant  part  in  the 
history  of  illustration,  when  compared  with 
the  block  books  that  follow  them  ; though 


W HA  T IS  ILL  US  TLA  TION? 


3 


block  printing  is  but  a natural  evolution 
from  the  stamp  on  the  bricks  of  the  Egyptian, 
or  the  painting  on  the  vases  of  the  Etruscan. 

The  block  books,  more  often  loose  sheets, 
were  printed  from  designs,  picture  and  text, 
cut  on  the  wood,  in  one  piece,  sometimes 
possibly  engraved  in  metal.  These  blocks, 
being  inked,  and  having  sheets  of  paper 
placed  on  their  inked  surfaces,  and  the  paper 
being  rubbed,  gave  off  an  impression  ; as 
many  blocks  having  to  be  cut  as  there  were 
pages,  and  as  many  impressions  having  to  be 
taken  from  each  block  as  there  were  copies 
desired.  The  first  of  these  illustrated 
blocks  is  the  St.  Christopher,  1423,  though 
playing-cards,  produced  in  the  same  way, 
were  known  much  earlier. 

It  is  only,  however,  with  the  invention 
of  printing  with  movable  types,  practised  by 
the  Chinese  centuries  before  we  ever  thought 

o 

of  it,  that  illustration,  in  its  modern  sense, 


4 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


may  be  said  to  have  been  created ; though 
printing  with  movable  type  is  but  the  cutting 
up  into  separate  letters  of  the  pages  of  the 
block  books.  As  soon  as  the  artist  was 

able  to  make  his  design  upon  a block  of 

■ 

wood,  have  that  engraved,  and  set  up  in 
the  press  with  movable  type,  and  print  from 
it,  a new  art  was  discovered. 

From  the  day  of  Gutenberg  and  Schoeffer, 
illustration  has,  in  the  main,  never  changed  ; 
new  methods  have  been  employed,  new  pro- 
cesses for  making  the  blocks  have  been 
perfected,  but  an  illustration  still  continues 
to  be  a design  on  a wood  block  or  metal 
plate,  so  cut,  engraved,  or  etched  as  to  pro- 
duce a printing  surface  from  which  impres- 
sions may  be  taken,  either  in  connection 
with  type,  when  we  call  it  letterpress  or  relief 
printing,  or  separate  from  the  type,  when  it 
usually  becomes  intaglio  or  plate  printing. 

These  methods  have  undergone,  and 


WHA  T IS  ILL  US  IRA  TION  ? 5 

still  are  undergoing,  incessant  modifications, 
developments,  and  improvements  ; and  any 
one  who  wishes  to  take  up  illustration  as 
a profession  or  a study,  must  learn  the 
rudiments  of  the  science,  as  well  as  master 
the  great  principles  of  art,  if  he  wishes  to 
succeed. 

To-day,  the  methods  of  making  the  design 
are  many,  but  the  methods  of  reproducing 
it  are  virtually  endless  ; still  one  must  try 
to  learn  something  of  the  most  important, 
and  the  more  one  understands  the  require- 
ments of  drawing  for  engraving  and  printing, 
the  better  will  be  the  results  obtained. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  one  had  but  to 
design  the  picture  on  the  side  of  a plank, 
write  in  the  text  in  reverse,  cut  everything 
else  away,  wet  the  block  thoroughly,  ink 
the  face  of  it,  lay  damp  paper  over  it,  and 
rub  or  press  the  back  of  the  sheet  of  paper 

4 

till  the  ink  came  off  on  it,  producing  a print. 


6 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


To-day  one  must  understand  drawing  in 
all  sorts  of  mediums,  know  something  of 
the  effect  of  photographing  a drawing  on 
to  the  wood  block  or  metal  plate,  take  at 
least  an  intelligent  interest  in  engraving  on 
wood  and  metal,  understand  process  and 
lithography,  and  be  prepared  to  struggle 
with  that  terrible  monster,  the  modern  steam- 
press,  and  its  slave,  the  modern  printer.  To 
do  this  intelligently  requires,  not  only  a 
training  in  Art,  but  in  the  arts  and  sciences 
of  engraving,  reproduction,  printing  ; and 
it  is  to  these  arts  and  sciences  that  I propose 
to  call  your  attention. 

An  illustration — usino-  the  term  in  its 
artistic  sense — is  a design  intended  to  give 
an  artist’s  idea  of  an  incident,  episode, 
or  topographical  site,  or  it  may  be  but  a 
mere  diagram  referred  to  by  a writer ; 
and  an  illustrator  is  one  who  makes  pic- 
tures or  illustrations  which  illustrate  or 


WHA  T IS  ILL  USTRA  TION  f 


7 


explain  his  own  text,  or  that  of  another 
writer. 

An  illustration  really  is  a work  of  art, 
or  rather  it  should  be,  which  is  explanatory  ; 
but,  as  a matter  of  fact,  so  too  is  all  graphic 
art,  explanatory  of  some  story,  sentiment, 
emotion,  effect,  or  fact ; and  it  would  be 
very  difficult  indeed  to  point  out  when  art 
is  not  illustrative. 

As  the  word  is  used  to-day,  however,  an 
illustration  is  a design  made  for  the  purpose 
of  publication  in  book  or  magazine  or  paper. 
The  fashion  of  making  such  designs  to 
accompany  lettering  or  type  is,  as  I have 
shown,  as  old  as  the  art  of  writing.  The 
art  of  illustration,  or  rather  the  existence 
of  illustration  as  a separate  craft,  and  of 
illustrators  as  a distinct  body  of  craftsmen, 
is  virtually  the  growth  of  this  century,  more 
properly  of  the  last  sixty  years  since  the 
invention  of  illustrated  journalism. 


8 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


Until  the  other  day  illustration  had  no 
place  among  the  Fine  Arts,  and  it  has  been 
said  that,  to  win  renown,  an  illustrator  must 
achieve  it  in  some  other  branch  of  art. 

A few  great  artists  of  the  past  have  made 
illustrations  which  will  be  prized  for  ever, 
and  to-day  these  men  are  spoken  of  as 
illustrators ; with  Diirer  and  Holbein  it  was 
but  one  of  the  many  forms  of  art  in  which 
they  excelled,  but  they  were  not  altogether 
given  up  to  it. 

To-day,  however,  illustration  is  the  most 
living  and  vital  of  the  Fine  Arts,  and  among 
its  followers  are  found  the  most  able  and 
eminent  of  contemporary  artists. 

It  cannot,  however,  be  said  that  this  pro- 
minence which  has  been  so  suddenly  thrust 
upon  illustration  is  altogether  due  to  its 
increase  in  artistic  excellence ; there  are  a 
number  of  other  reasons. 

Illustration  has  indeed  reached  technically, 


WHA  T IS  ILL  US  TRA  TION  t 9 

on  the  part  of  artist,  engraver,  and  printer, 
such  a point  of  perfection,  that  it  has  at 
length  forced  critics  and  amateurs  to  give 
it  the  attention  it  has  so  long  demanded. 

More  important  reasons  are  the  develop- 
ments in  reproduction  and  printing,  started, 
and  to  a great  extent  carried  on,  merely 
to  lessen  the  cost  of  production,  but  capable 
of  giving  better  and  truer  results  in  the 
hands  of  intelligent  craftsmen,  than  any- 
thing previously  known. 

Still,  cheapness  in  reproduction  by  pro- 
cess, cheapness  in  the  cost  of  printing,  has 
enabled  numbers  of  absolutely  ignorant 
people  (ignorant,  that  is,  of  art),  but  pos- 
sessed of,  they  think,  fine  commercial  in- 
stincts, to  start  illustrated  papers  and  publish 
illustrated  books.  The  result  has  been  that 
an  army  of  out-of-works  in  other  fields  of 
art,  of  immature  or  even  utterly  untrained 
students,  escaping  from  the  hard  labour  and 


10 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


drudgery  of  an  art  school,  ignorant  even  of 
the  fact  that  great  illustrators  have  always 
studied  and  worked  before  they  have  found 
a chance  to  start,  have  rushed  into  illustra- 
tion. They  are  led  blindly  by  the  advice  of 
the  blind,  they  find  even  manuals  on  the 
subject  written  authoritatively  by  people  who 
are  either  not  artists,  engravers,  or  printers, 
or,  if  they  do  pretend  to  practise  any  of  these 
arts  and  crafts,  are  unknown  and  unheard  ot 
among  the  artists  with  whom  they  would  rank 
themselves ; and  more  wonderful  still,  the 
pupils  of  these  blind  leaders  of  the  blind  find 
publishers  and  printers  ignorant  enough  to 
employ  them  ; but  not  so  ignorant  as  to  pay 
more  than  the  wage  of  an  inferior  servant 
for  the  worthless  work  supplied  them. 

There  are  many  of  these  papers,  maga- 
zines, and  books  being  published  to-day — 
eminent  authors  even  contribute  to  their 
pages  ; but  the  illustrations  they  contain  are 


WHAT  IS  ILLUSTRATION? 


ii 


more  primitive  in  their  depth  of  ignorance 
than  the  work  of  the  cave-dwellers,  and 
would  be  equally  valuable  to  future  ages  if  it 
were  not  that  they  were  mainly  made  up  of 
an  unintelligent  cribbing,  and  stealing  from 
photographs  and  other  mens  work. 

Therefore,  as  a mass,  instead  of  advancing, 
illustration  is  sinking  lower  and  lower,  owing 
to  the  action  of  those  who  pretend  to  be 
its  patrons ; at  the  present  moment  we 
find  ourselves  in  a critical  situation,  good 
work  crowded  out  by  mediocrity — because 
mediocrity  is  cheaper  — real  artists  lost 

sight  of  amid  the  crowd  of  squirming, 
struggling,  advertising  hacks.  Any  spark 
of  originality  is  stamped  out  if  possible. 
The  mere  attempt  to  say  anything  in  one’s 
own  fashion  is  a crime,  and  on  all  sides  the 
prayer  for  the  extinction  of  the  artist  is 
heard  ; after  him  will  go  the  process  man 
as  the  commercial  wood  engraver  has 


12 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


vanished,  and  then — well,  things  will  take 
a new  start,  good  work  will  be  done,  and 
we  may  as  well  prepare  for  the  time  coming 
soon,  when  cheapness  and  nastiness,  having 
struggled  to  the  bitter  end,  will  kill  each 
other  for  want  of  something  better. 

Still,  to-day,  as  good  work  is  being  done 
as  ever  there  was  ; only  cheapness  has  to 
shriek  so  loud,  and  advertise  so  large,  to  be 
seen  at  all,  that  people  are  deafened  by  the 
shrieking,  and  at  times  the  best  is  but  seen 
through  a glass,  darkly.  Nevertheless,  good 
art  will  as  surely  live  as  bad  will  perish. 
Let  us  then  endeavour  not  only  to  learn 
what  good  work  is,  but  how  to  do  it.  In 
the  near  future  this  will  be  absolutely 
necessary.  When  one  sees  the  greatest 
artists  in  England  drawing  for  penny 
papers,  one  realises  that  illustration  is 
only  apparently  in  a bad  way,  that  really 
we  are  entering  upon  a second  renaissance, 


WHAT  IS  ILLUSTRATION? 


13 


that  this  is  but  the  dark  moment  before 
the  dawn. 

As  a preliminary,  and  also  a final,  word 
to  you,  I would  say,  you  must  draw,  draw, 
draw  first,  last,  and  all  the  time,  and  until 
you  can  draw,  and  draw  well,  you  cannot 
illustrate. 

The  study,  therefore,  of  the  equipment 
of  the  illustrator  should  be  our  aim — what 
he  must  do  before  he  can  make  ^ood  illus- 
trations,  then,  how  he  is  to  make  them. 


LECTURE  II. 


THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILLUSTRATOR. 

^HREE  special  qualifications  are  abso- 
lutely  indispensable  to  the  artist  who 
desires  to  become  an  illustrator. 

First,  in  order  to  make  the  least  important 
illustration,  the  student  must  have  a sound 
training  in  drawing,  and  if  he  has  worked 
in  colour  so  much  the  better,  for  in  the  near 
future  colour  work  will  play  a very  im- 
portant part,  even  in  the  least  costly  form 
of  books  and  papers. 

Second,  the  student  must  thoroughly 
understand  the  use  of  various  mediums,  oil 


THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILLUSTRATOR.  15 

(in  monochrome  at  least),  water  colour,  wash 
and  body  colour,  pen  and  ink,  chalk,  etching, 
lithography,  and  he  must  have  ability  to 
express  himself  by  almost  all  these  methods. 
A knowledge,  too,  of  the  appearance  the 
drawing  will  present  after  it  has  been  en- 
graved on  wood  or  metal,  processed,  etched, 
or  lithographed  is  necessary,  because  the 
illustrator  will  be  held  responsible  for  the 
results  on  the  printed  page ; even  though,  as 
is  usually  the  case,  the  fault  is  that  of  the 
engraver  or  printer,  the  public  certainly  will 
blame  the  artist  alone.  Therefore  the  editor 
or  publisher  will  not  employ  him.  The  en- 

X 

graver  will  blame  him  if  only  to  save  his 

1 

own  business  reputation.  The  printer  will 
take  away  in  every  case  many  valuable 
qualities  which  the  drawing  possessed  ; but 
for  the  incompetency  or  inability  of  engraver 
and  printer,  the  artist  will  be  held  account- 
able, and  he  must  therefore  understand 


1 6 THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 

engraving-  and  printing  well  enough  to 
place  the  blame  where  it  belongs,  if  not 
on  his  own  shoulders. 

To  be  able,  then,  to  obtain  good  printed 
results,  requires  a knowledge  of  the  repro- 
ductive arts,  on  the  part  of  the  illustrator, 
in  theory  at  least,  almost  equal  to  the  prac- 
tical skill  demanded  in  drawing. 

Third,  but  most  important  of  all,  the 
ability  to  discover  the  vital  or  characteristic 
motive  of  an  author’s  v/ork,  and  so  set  it 
forth  that  the  public  may  see  it  too.  And 
the  power  to  do  this  well  is  without  doubt 
the  real  test  of  an  illustrator. 

Nothing  is  more  difficult.  The  artist  must 
please  the  author,  therefore  he  should  if 
possible  know  the  writer  personally  ; at  least 
he  must  be  in  sympathy  with,  and  interested 
in  his  work,  else  a difference  arises  at  once  ; 
jealousy  between  author  and  artist,  nearly 
always  the  fault  of  the  author,  who  usually 


THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILLUSTRATOR.  17 

resents  the  presence  of  the  artist  at  all,  is 
the  cause  of  half  the  failures  in  illustration. 
No  artist  would  think  of  dictating  to  an 
author  the  fashion  in  which  the  latter  should 
write  his  story,  but  every  author,  and  not 
a few  editors,  try  to  tell  their  own  artist  how 
it  shall  be  illustrated.  To  a certain  extent 
this  is  right,  and  it  would  be  altogether 
right,  if  only  the  author  and  editor  knew 
anything  of  art ; but  not  infrequently  they 
do  not,  and  the  less  they  know  the  more 
they  dictate. 

It  may  be  safely  said  that  not  once  in  a 
hundred  times  is  the  author  satisfied  with 
his  illustrations,  especially  if  they  are  made 
to  decorate  a story.  And  even  the  designs 
intended  to  illustrate  a descriptive  article 
seldom  please  the  writer,  simply  because  the 
author  has  no  comprehension  of  the  limita- 
tions of  graphic  art. 

Still,  with  descriptive  articles,  the  case  is 


3 


i8 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


somewhat  different.  If  the  illustrator  knows 
the  author,  he  may  undertake  the  journey,  if 
to  a foreign  land,  for  example,  with  him,  and 
a most  delightful  piece  of  collaboration  may 
be  the  result.  Or  the  author  having  visited 
the  spot — sometimes  he  writes  about  it  with- 
out having  done  so — may  make  out  a list 
of  subjects,  and  the  artist  may  pick  and 
choose  from  them,  going  to  the  place 
described  to  do  so,  with  more  or  less  satis- 
factory results.  It  is  in  this  way  that  most 
of  the  better  known  magazines  obtain  their 
illustrated  descriptive  articles,  but  even  by 
this  method  the  artist  and  author  usually 
disagree  as  to  what  should  be  drawn,  the 
matter  being  looked  at  from  two  entirely 
different  points  of  view.  Or  the  artist  may 
be  asked  to  work  up  into  drawings,  from 
photographs,  views  of  a place,  or  portraits 
of  people  never  seen  by  him  ; some  illus- 
trators are  very  successful  at  this,  work 


THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILLUSTRATOR,  19 

I 

which  in  most  men’s  hands  would  be  but 
the  veriest  drudgery  and  hack  work,  be- 
coming* interesting,  attractive,  and  truly 
artistic. 

But  in  most  cases  such  drawings,  even 
by  the  most  skilful  men,  lack  the  go  and  life 
obtained  when  the  work  is  done  direct  from 
nature,  or  at  least  without  the  photograph  ; 
and  every  true  artist  prefers  nature  to  any 
photograph  There  is  nothing  in  the  world 
more  difficult  to  work  from.  One  is 
confused  by  endless  unimportant,  unselected 
details  ; the  point  of  view  is  never  that 
which  one  would  have  selected,  and  the 
result,  save  in  the  rarest  instances,  is  dubbed 
photographic  even  by  the  artless. 

The  most  awful  misfortune  that  may 
occur  to  an  illustrator  is  to  be  compelled 
to  use  the  photographs  or  sketches  made 
by  an  author ; here  almost  certain  disaster 
awaits  the  artist.  The  author  who  cannot 


20 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


draw  but  will  sketch  is  terrible  ; the  author 
who  can  photograph  is  impossible.  Both,  they 
are  sure,  could  make  the  illustrations  if  they 
but  had  the  time ; and  the  artist  who  is 
compelled  to  illustrate  them  could  write 
the  story  or  do  the  description,  he  knows, 
if  he  but  took  the  trouble.  At  least,  that 
is  the  view  they  take  of  each  other.  The 
result  is  almost  certain  failure. 

Such  people  should  contribute  solely  to 
those  journals  where  neither  art  nor  litera- 
ture find  an  abiding  place,  and  the  photo- 
graph, the  amateur,  and  the  personal 
paragraph  are  supreme. 

Despite  all  these  things,  and  many  more, 
people  struggle  to  become  illustrators. 

Another  qualification  for  the  illustrator 
is  education  ; no  ignorant  person  may 
become  a decent  illustrator.  He  need  not 
possess  a university  degree  ; few  do. 
But  he  must  be  able  to  understand  a 


THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILL  US  TEA  TOP.  21 

vital  or  dramatic  or  pictorial  point,  and  to 
arrive  at  this  understanding  may  necessi- 
tate much  study  of  literature  at  home 
and  the  visiting  of  many  lands. 

How  can  one  illustrate  a history  of 
Napoleon,  for  example,  without  reading 
everything  possible  about  his  life  that  the 
author  read,  and  without  visiting  the 
various  countries  in  which  his  life  was 
passed ; in  short,  the  conscientious  illus- 
trator goes  through  exactly  the  same 
process  as  the  author,  when  collecting  his 
materials.  With  this  difference  ; the  author 
is,  in  most  cases,  the  final  judge  of  his 
own  work,  and  of  his  artist’s  efforts  too. 
It  is  amazing  that,  considering  that  an 
illustrator  has  to  submit  to  having  his 

work  judged  by  editors,  rejected  by 

**  \ 

authors,  spoiled  by  engraving,  injured  by 
process,  and  ruined  by  printing — and  all 
this  may  happen  to  good  as  well  as  bad 


22 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


work — armies  of  young  people  are  rushing 
into  an  over-crowded  profession,  and  every 
art  school,  by  teaching  illustration,  is  en- 
couraging them  to  do  so. 

Seeing,  then,  that  such  is  the  case,  my 
object  is  to  endeavour  to  give  you  a 
start  in  the  right  way  if  possible,  at  least 
in  the  way  that,  up  to  the  present,  the 
best  work  has  been  done. 

That  is,  briefly,  by  drawing  well,  by 
working  carefully,  by  expressing  ideas 
plainly,  and  these  desired  results  can  only 
be  obtained  by  those  who  regard  illustra- 
tion quite  as  seriously  as  any  other  branch 
of  the  Fine  Arts  ; who  know  the  good  work 
that  has  been  done  in  the  past,  and  work- 
ing on  the  right  traditions,  adapt  their 
methods  to  the  requirements  of  the  present. 

There  are  many  more  points  to  be  noted, 
not  least  of  which  is  that  an  illustrator 
must  learn  to  keep  his  temper;  from  the 


THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILLUSTRATOR.  23 

first  drawing  he  submits,  until  he  takes 
to  painting  in  despair,  his  work  will  almost 
surely  be  misunderstood,  his  motives  dis- 
believed. If  he  works  in  the  style  affected 
by  his  paper,  that  is,  the  style  which  the 
editor  considers  appeals  to  his  subscribers 
— for  papers  are  published  for  gain,  not  love 
— he  will  be  asked  by  the  critic  why  he 
does  so.  If  he  dares  to  be  original,  to 
follow  his  own  inclinations,  he  will  be 
told  to  efface  himself  and  work  like  the 
rest.  If  he  sketches  he  will  be  accused 
of  shirking  his  work.  It  he  elaborates 
he  will  be  told  he  is  ruining  the  pro- 
prietor. 

His  only  consolation  is  that  he,  per- 
sonally, seldom  sees  the  editor,  he  pre- 
pares himself  for  the  ordeal,  and  as  the 
editor  has  to  encounter  a constant  succes- 
sion of  irate,  contrite,  emphatic,  and  even 
furious  artists,  his  life  cannot  be  an  alto- 


24 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


gether  happy  one.  Still  he  flourishes,  and 
so  does  the  illustrator. 

But  there  are  compensations.  One  may 
be  asked  to  illustrate  the  works  of  a 
deceased  author,  one  may  treat  the  volume 
almost  as  one  likes,  and  discuss  the  result 
with  the  editor.  In  this  case  the  artist  will 
almost  certainly  do  his  best.  If  he  has  the 
true  illustrative  spirit,  he  will  study  the  period, 
the  country,  the  manners,  the  costume  ; and, 
if  let  alone,  to  produce  the  work  in  his  own 
way  and  at  his  leisure,  he  may  create  a 
masterpiece.  This,  however,  depends  entirely 
on  the  artist.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  great 
illustrated  works  of  the  century  have  come 
into  existence,  without  hurry,  without  worry, 
and,  after  all,  the  pleasure  of  work  has  been 

i 

almost  the  only  reward  the  artist  has  gained 
— and  that  seems  to  be  enough  to  attract 
crowds — but  I doubt  if  the  business  side  of 
illustration  means  much  to  the  student. 


THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILLUSTRATOR. 


25 


Better  still,  the  artist  may  make  a series 
cf  drawings,  and  then  get  a writer — an 
artist  in  words — one  of  those  people  who 
talk  of  impressionism  in  prose,  or  impasto 
in  poetry,  to  turn  out  so  many  yards  of 
copy.  With  what  a grace  he  does  so,  and 
with  what  glee  the  artist  pounces  on  his 
lines!  If  it  were  not  for  the  ever-present 
editor  the  author’s  lot  would  be  almost  as 
bad  as  the  illustrator’s. 

Best  condition  of  all  under  which  work 
may  be  produced  is  when  the  illustrator  is 
his  own  author,  when  he  writes  his  own 
story  or  does  his  own  description ; this 
requires  that  one  shall  be  doubly  gifted. 

* Much  may  be  learned  by  practice,  but  to 
be  really  great  in  this  has  as  yet  scarce 
been  granted.  But  a few  very  talented 
artist-authors  exist. 

Equally  good  are  those  magazines  that 
publish  illustrations  which  are  independent 


26 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


works  of  art,  of  equal  importance  with  the 
text. 

Equally  pleasant,  too,  is  working  for  the 
weekly  illustrated  press — how  long  this  form 

9 

of  publication  will  last  is  doubtful — making 
drawings  which  will  be  printed  of  a large 
size  and  show  really  the  ability  of  the  artist. 
It  is  pleasant,  too,  when  the  editor  is  an  artist 
or  man  of  sympathetic  intelligence. 

Another  very  important  matter  is  the 
recoonisincr  of  the  fact  that  illustration  at 

O o 

its  best  is  equal  in  artistic  rank  with  any 
other  form  of  artistic  expression  ; and  that 
in  every  country  save  England  illustrators 
rank  with  any  other  artists.  Here  one  is 
forced  to  take  to  paint  to  gain  admittance 
to  the  Royal  Academy,  though  most  of  the 
distinguished  members  of  that  body  won 
their  reputations,  and  live  on  them,  not  by 
colour,  but  by  the  despised  trade  of  illus- 
trating. Critics — even  the  best  of  them — 


THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILLUSTRATOR.  27 

will  tell  you  that  an  illustrator  is  just  a little 
lower  than  a painter.  It  is  false  if  the  art 
of  the  one  is  as  good  in  quality  as  that  of 
the  other  ; else  Rembrandts  etchings  are 

I 

inferior  to  his  paintings,  which  is  absurd. 

But  to-day  many  illustrators,  in  fact  the 
mass,  do  not  take  themselves  seriously. 
They  squabble  and  haggle,  they  hurry  and 
push,  they  are  as  much  shopkeepers  as  your 
out-of-work  painter.  Others  must  have 
their  stuff  in  every  paper.  Others’  portraits 
and  eventless  bourgeois  lives  appear  in  every 
magazine,  especially  if  the  portrait  is  done 
for  nothing  and  a few  drawings  are  thrown 
in.  Others  crib  the  superficial  qualities  of 

the  popular  one  of  the  moment,  whether  his 
game  is  eccentricity,  mysticism,  or  primi- 
tiveness, three  excellent  dodges  for  hiding 
incapacity  or  want  of  training. 

Not  that  there  are  no  good  men  who  do 
find  their  means  of  expression  among  the 


28 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


primitives  or  who  are  really  mystic,  or  truly 
grotesque,  but  for  every  one  of  these  there 
is  an  army  of  frauds. 

But  all  the  while  good  work  is  being  done. 
You  may  not  see  the  real  artist’s  name  in 
letters  a foot  long  on  every  hoarding,  or  his 
productions  in  every  book  that  comes  out. 
But  once  in  a while  he  does  an  article,  or 
even  a drawing  and  then  the  mystics,  the 
hacks,  the  primitives,  and  even  some  few 
of  the  public,  buy  it  and  treasure  it  up. 

Therefore  be  serious,  be  earnest ; and  if 

i 

you  cannot  be — if  you  think  illustration  but  a 
stepping-stone  to  something  better — leave  it 
alone  and  tackle  the  something  better.  You 
may  never  succeed  in  that ; you  will  certainly 
fail  in  illustration. 

There  is  still  another  point,  the  financial 
one.  Here  illustration  approaches  archi- 
tecture. Ruskin  said  somewhere,  probably 
by  accident,  for  it  is  so  true,  “ Never  give 


THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILLUSTRATOR.  29 

your  drawings  away  ; tear  them  up  or  keep 
them  till  some  one  wants  to  buy  them.” 
At  the  present  time  the  profession  is  so 
crowded  at  the  bottom  that  some  shop- 
keeping editors  have  profited  by  this  to 
reduce  their  prices  almost  to  nothing — liter- 
ally, by  threatening  and  sweating,  obtain- 
ing the  work  of  mere  students  and  people 
who  are  without  money  or  brains,  though 
they  may  be  possessed  of  artistic  ability, 
for  next  to  nothing.  In  the  case  of  painters 
they  have  said,  “ Send  us  a photo  or  sketch 
of  your  picture,  and  we  will  put  it  in  ; and 
think  of  the  advertisement.” 

What  you  who  want  to  be  illustrators 
must  think  of  is  that  the  painters  who  give 
their  work  to  these  people  are  fools.  Would 
a novelist  sell  his  story  for  nothing,  or  a 
poet  part  with  his  sonnet  for  a puff?  And 
when  these  editors  say  they  can  get  such  an 
one’s  drawing  for  so  much  less,  tell  them  to 


3° 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


get  it,  they  will  come  after  you  on  their 
knees  later  if  you  have  anything  in  you,  or 
their  papers  do  not  come  to  grief  in  the 
meantime. 

Of  course  there  can  be  no  hard-and-fast 
rule  about  remuneration,  but  the  labourer  is 
worthy  of  what  he  can  get.  And  it  has  only 
been  within  the  last  few  years  that  the  clever 
dodge  of  swindling  the  public  by  bad  photos 
and  worse  art,  of  sweating  artists  by  employ- 
ing hacks  and  students,  has  been  practised 
for  the  benefit  of  two  people,  grasping  pro- 
prietors and  still  more  grasping  editors. 

In  connection  with  this  matter,  let  me 
read  you  an  extract  from  a letter  recently 
received  by  me  from  a great  living  illus- 
trator : — 

“ It  has  for  too  long  been  the  case  that 
the  unsuccessful  practitioner  of  other  arts 
has  turned  to  illustration  of  the  baser  sort  as 
a last  chance  of  earning  a living.  I dare 


i 


THE  EQUIPMENT  OF  THE  ILLUSTRA  TOR.  31 

say  he  has  a right  to  a living,  but  in  these 
days  of  cheap  and  nasty  illustrated  journals, 
the  low  standard  of  work  he  brings,  as  a 
rule,  to  a branch  of  the  artistic  calling 
always  considered  by  me  a dignified  and 
important  branch,  I do  not  believe  in 
recognising  or  encouraging ; and  it  certainly 
seems  to  me  that  a certain  distinction 
should  be  made  between  men  who  take  not 
the  slightest  artistic  interest  in  their  work 
and  those  who  conscientiously  endeavour  to 
do  it  well  and  honestly. 

“ I have  seen  the  abnormal  growth  and 
prosperity  of  cheap  and  nasty  illustration, 
to  my  great  regret.  I suppose  that  so  long 
as  there  is  a large  market  for  it,  men  will  be 
found  to  supply  it,  and  evidently  this  is  the 
sort  of  thing  finding  favour  to-day. 

“ The  standard  set  up  by  the  ‘ Cornhill  ’ 
and  ‘Once  a Week,’  and  by  Menzel  and 
Meissonier  abroad,  seems  to  be  out  of  key 


32 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


with  the  present  taste.  It  must  be  that 
ignorance  of  good  work  is  responsible  ” — 
ignorance,  I may  add,  on  the  part  of  the 
artist  and  editor — in  their  case  intentional 
or  deplorable  ; in  the  case  of  the  public  it 
is  but  the  blind  being  led  by  the  blind. 

Therefore,  finally,  try  to  do  good  work, 
and  when  you  have  done  it  demand  to  be 
well  paid  for  it.  If  you  have  not  the  moral 
or  financial  backbone  for  this,  go  and  chop 
wood — or  paint. 


LECTURE  III. 

METHODS  OF  DRAWING  FOR  REPRODUCTIOA 

IN  LINE. 

* I VHERE  is  no  doubt  that  to-day  the 
A most  popular  method  of  designing 
the  decoration  of  a book  (I  use  the  word 
book,  but  I would  refer  to  magazines  and 

papers  as  well)  is  by  means  of  line  work. 

\ 

By  the  use  of  what  materials  these  lines  are 
to  be  made  ; how  they  are  to  be  placed  upon 
paper  or  metal  that  they  may  reproduce  and 
print  best ; and  the  way  in  which  that  repro- 
duction and  printing  is  done,  will  be  the 
subject  of  this  and  subsequent  lectures. 

The  line  has  always  been  employed,  not 


4 


33 


34 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


only  by  artists,  but  by  the  artless,  to  express 
form  ; the  only  difference  being  that  the 
artist  uses  a vital  line  full  of  meaning,  the 
artless  a meaningless  line  without  vitality. 
But  often  the  work  of  the  two  approaches 
so  closely  that  at  times  it  can  scarcely  be 
distinguished ; however,  that  is  a critical, 
and  not  a technical,  matter. 

I do  not  propose  to  give  you  a history  of 
the  methods  employed  to  obtain  lines,  in 
fact,  a history  of  drawing.  There  are  many 
such  books,  and  as  for  drawing  you  study 
that  every  day,  in  the  life  and  antique,  and 
I hope  outside  as  well.  But  it  is  to  line  work 
and  its  reproduction  in  the  present,  that  I 
wish  to  call  your  attention. 

The  most  generally  adopted  method  of 
making  a line  drawing  for  illustration  to- 
day is  with  a pen  and  ink,  upon  white 
paper.  There  are  but  four  tools,  and  a 
surface  to  work  on  required.  The  tools 


ME  THODS  OF  DR  A WING. 


35 


are  simple  and  cheap  enough,  the  ability 
to  use  them  rightly  and  well  is  rare  enough, 
even  though  every  book  is  decorated  and  all 
newspapers  are  to  be  illustrated  in  the  near 
future. 

First,  as  to  the  pens : there  is,  as  you 
know,  an  endless  variety  of  them,  all  the 
best.  Some  are  made  specially  for  the 
artist,  and  of  these  the  most  generally 
used  is  Gillotts  659  (all  colour-men  keep 
them),  a barrel  pen,  which  fits  a special 
handle ; when  one  has  mastered  this  pen, 
unsympathetic,  hard  and  scratchy  at  first, 
and  each  pen,  by  the  way,  has  to  be  broken 
in,  one  finds  that  the  most  amazing  variety  of 
line  can  be  obtained  with  it,  from  the  most 
delicate  to  the  boldest.  The  beginner  thinks 
because  it  is  a small  tool  that  only  small  work 
can  be  done  with  it ; experience  and  practice 
will  prove  to  him  that  it  is  a most  sensitive 
implement,  and  he  will  learn  to  take  care  of 


36 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


his  pens,  keeping  them  on  the  holder  in  a 
box  which  they  just  fit,  for  these  pens  im- 
prove with  age,  getting  better  and  better 
until  they  are  almost  like  living  things,  and 
then  they  break. 

From  this  most  delicate  and  sensitive  of 
pens  I would  call  your  attention  to  the 
hardest  and  most  unsympathetic,  the  glass 
pen,  or  stylus ; this  is  a useful  tool,  but 
while  the  Gillott  is  to  be  used  in  work  de- 
manding freedom  of  touch  and  consequent 
variety  of  line,  the  glass  pen  is  only  to  be 
used  — unless  you  like  it  — when  lines  of 
uniform  thickness  are  wanted.  It  carries 
a large  quantity  of  ink,  and,  as  lines  can  be 
made  in  any  direction  with  it,  it  is  more  like 
an  etching  needle  than  anything  else  I know 
of;  and  if  these  pens  were  really  well  made  in 
metal  and  not  of  glass,  and  of  different  sizes 
and  would  give  lines  really  varying  in 
width,  they  would  be  much  used  ; as  it  is 


METHODS  OF  DRAWING. 


37 


they  are  very  unreliable,  easily  broken,  and 
expensive.  I find  that  they  are  liable  to 
tear  up  the  paper,  or  refuse  to  work  in  an 
annoying  fashion.  It  has  been  pointed  out 
that  they  are  most  useful  for  tracing,  and 
also  that  if  they  clog  up  they  may  be  easily 
cleaned  by  dipping  in  water  and  wiping  off 
with  a dry  rag.  I may  say  that  they  should 
be  thoroughly  wiped,  and  in  fact  all  pens 
should,  after  they  are  cleaned,  or  the  ink  is 
changed,  as  you  may  not  only  spoil  your 
pen,  but  your  ink  as  well,  by  dipping  your 
pen  without  cleaning,  either  in  water  or 
another  sort  of  ink,  as  one  ink  may  con- 
tain some  chemical  matter  which  absolutely 
ruins  another.  Some  rubber  should  be 
placed  in  the  bottom  of  your  inkstand,  for 
if  the  glass  pen  drops  heavily  it  will  be 
broken  ; but  not  paper,  unless  you  wish  to 
spend  all  your  time  wiping  pulp  off  your 
pen.  The  best  of  these  pens  I have  found 


i 


38  THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 

are  those  sold  by  Roberson,  99,  Long  Acre. 
Between  these  two  extremes,  of  flexibility 
in  the  Gillott,  and  firmness  in  the  stylus, 
are  to  be  found  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  pens.  And  I may  say  that  you  may 
never  like,  and  you  need  never  use,  any 
special  kind,  but  instead  your  favourite 
writing  pen  ; if  you  like  that  best,  it  is  the 
tool  for  you,  use  it.  There  are,  however, 
some  other  sorts  of  pens  to  which  I may 
call  your  attention.  If  only  some  fountain- 
pen  maker  had  the  sense  to  invent  a pen 
for  artists,  he  would  make  his  fortune.  But 
fountain-pens  at  present  are  unreliable  in 
action  and  unsuitable  for  use  with  drawing 
inks,  so  they  are  out  of  the  question  altogether 
for  us. 

A very  good  tool  is  the  quill  pen.  Much 
variety  can  be  obtained  with  it,  especially 
in  broad  dragged  work.  I use  technical 
terms  because  you  understand  them,  I 


METHODS  OF  DRAWING. 


39 


hope,  and  it  is  only  the  technical  side  of 
illustration  I propose  to  touch.  With  the 
back  of  this  pen  you  can  get  rich  and 
broken  effects,  especially  when  it  is  half 
dry.  The  quill,  the  stylus,  and  the  reed, 
were  the  tools  for  pen-drawing  used  by 
the  old  men.  You  can  buy  quill  pens 
anywhere.  Reed  pens  you  had  better 
make  for  yourselves ; go  to  a reed  bed  in 
the  early  summer,  cut  off  the  top  of  the 
stalk,  strip  off  the  outer  covering,  and  cut 
the  inner  canes  into  sections  between  the 
joints,  cut  your  pen  and  finish  it  at  once, 
or  rather  a lot  of  them,  for  when  the  reed 
is  dry  it  is  liable  to  split  and  is  not  half  so 
flexible. 

Pen  work  with  reed  pens  really  should 
only  be  done  when  they  are  fresh  ; but  at 
all  times  they  glide  easily  over  the  paper, 
though  any  pen  will  do  this  after  you 
have  mastered  it.  Reed  pens  also 


40 


ME  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


make  a broad  fat  line  and  hold  lots  of 
colour. 

Another  pen  which  is  useful  sometimes  is 
Perry’s  Auto-Stylo,  or  marking  pen,  from 
Perry’s,  Holborn  Viaduct ; lines  half  an  inch 
broad  or  as  fine  as  a hair  can  be  made  with 
it,  and  I have  at  times  used  it  as  a brush  ; 

i 

it  is  a most  amusing  instrument. 

Brandauer’s  round  pointed  pens  are  used 
by  some.  But  the  pen  you  should  use  is  the 
pen  you  can  use  ; that  is,  the  pen  with  which 
you  can  get  the  most  variety  of  line.  Or 
you  may  use  half  a dozen,  from  the  finest 
Gillott  to  the  biggest  reed.  It  is  not  the 
pen,  but  the  person  who  uses  it.  Sometimes 
it  is  not  a bad  thing  to  remember  this. 

Many  artists  are  now  taking  up  the  use 
of  the  brush  ; most  probably  it  was  used  by 
the  old  men,  certainly  the  men  of  the  last 
generation  employed  it,  as  it  was  much 
easier  to  work  on  the  wood  block  with  a 


METHODS  OF  DRAWING . 


4i 


brush  than  a pen.  And  we  know  that  the 
Japanese  pen  is  a brush.  The  advantages 
are  flexibility  of  line,  amount  of  colour  it 
will  hold,  freedom  from  scratchiness,  and 
absolute  freedom  of  movement  in  every 
direction — the  greatest  advantage  of  all — 
the  line  itself  is  fuller  and  fatter,  more 
pleasing.  The  drawbacks,  well,  there 
scarcely  are  any,  save  that  to  use  either 
brush  or  pen  well  is  about  as  difficult  as 
to  play  the  violin  ; that  is  all. 

The  commonest  brush  for  line  work  is 
that  used  by  lithographers,  a sable  rigger 
which  they  cut  to  a fine  point,  removing  the 
outside  hairs ; but  almost  any  good  pointed 
brush  will  do.  Very  good  indeed  are  the 
genuine  Japanese  brushes,  the  small  thin 
ones  are  the  best — in  black  handles — you 
can  pick  these  up  sometimes  at  the  Japanese 
dealers,  but  I imagine  any  artists  colour- 
man  would  send  to  Japan  for  them  if  there 


42 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


was  a sufficient  demand  ; I have  got  them  in 
quantities  for  a penny  each. 

There  are  various  mechanical  tint  tools 
like  air  brushes  in  use  ; they  are  of  little 
importance  to  the  artist,  and  if  you  want  a 
dotted  tint  you  can  get  it  by  dipping  a tooth- 
brush in  ink  and  rubbing  the  inked  hairs 
with  a match  stick,  when  the  ink  will  be 
splattered  in  dots  and  blots  all  over  the 
paper.  You  may  lay  a piece  of  paper  on 
the  parts  you  wish  to  keep  white,  and  paint 
or  scratch  out  spots  that  are  too  dark,  or  you 
may  impress  your  inked  thumb  or  pieces  of 
inked  silk  on  the  paper,  or  indulge  in  any 
trick  of  this  sort  that  amuses  you  and  gives 
the  desired  result. 

Ink  is  probably  the  most  important  ma- 
terial employed  in  pen-drawing.  It  must  be 
good,  that  is,  it  must  be  black — it  should  not 
shine  — it  must  never  settle,  it  must  flow 
easily,  dry  quickly,  and  never  clog  the  pen. 


METHODS  OF  DR  A WING. 


43 


There  are  many  varieties  of  good  ink,  but 
the  only  ink  I know  of  to-day,  which  gives 
me  exactly  what  I want  and  is  obtainable  of 
the  same  quality  all  over  the  world,  all  over 
Europe  at  any  rate — and  this  is  an  enormous 
advantage — is  Bourgeois’  Encre  de  Chine 
Liquide.  During  several  years  it  has  never 
varied,  and  that  is  more  than  I can  say  of 
any  other.  It  is  indelible,  a desirable 
quality  in  ordinary  use.  The  only  bad 
thing  about  it  is  the  vile,  ill-balanced  bottle 
and  the  rotten  cork,  which  always  breaks  and 
often  gets  you  into  a mess.  The  best  bottle 
I have  ever  seen  is  that  in  which  Higgins’ 
American  drawing  ink  comes. 

This  is  not  a talk  on  inks,  but  a hint  as  to 
what  I have  found  the  most  satisfactory  and 
reliable — if  you  do  not  like  this  one,  every 
colourman  makes  an  ink  or  sells  some 
one  else’s  ; try  it.  Among  the  best  are 
Higgins’,  Winsor  and  Newton’s,  New- 


44 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


man’s,  Rowney’s,  Reeve’s,  Stevens’  ebony 
stain. 

Freshly-ground  Indian  ink  is  the  best  of 
all,  but  to  grind  up  your  ink  is  too  much 
trouble,  too  tedious  and  too  unreliable  to 
be  worth  the  bother  it  entails.  Indian  ink, 
under  certain  conditions,  shines  and  glitters, 
and  this  is  not  pleasant,  and  hinders  photo- 
graphy. Lamp  black  and  ivory  black  are 
quite  dead  and  free  from  shine,  but  they  are 
not  fixed  colours.  They  may  be  easily  fixed 
with  oall  or  gum. 

o o 

Writing  inks  usually,  if  not  always,  have 
blue  in  them  ; therefore  they  will  not  photo- 
graph, they  run  about,  blot,  and  generally 
misbehave.  Sometimes  one  gets  good  black 
writing-ink ; when  you  do  get  it,  use  it. 
But  Indian  or  Chinese  ink  is  best,  and 
as  I know’  of  no  better  preparation  at 
present,  I commend  Bourgeois’  Encre  de 
Chine  Liquide  ; it  comes  in  the  tall  bottle 


METHODS  OF  DRAWING. 


45 


with  the  diagonal  black  and  yellow  dragon 
on  the  label.  Coloured  inks,  save  blue,  may- 
be used,  but  unless  the  illustration  is  to  be 
printed  in  that  colour  the  result  is  almost 
always  disappointing ; delicate  washes  of 
brown,  for  instance,  becoming  staring  solid 
blacks. 

In  sketching  out  of  doors  with  ink,  a 
method  I most  strongly  recommend,  pour 
your  ink,  or  rather  enough  of  it,  into 
an  excisemans  ink-bottle,  one  of  those 
unspillable  affairs  which  you  can  cork  up — 
though,  save  to  keep  the  dust  out  of  them, 
there  is  no  occasion  to  do  so — and  attach 
it  by  a sort  of  watch-guard  to  your  button- 
hole, putting  the  bottle  in  your  pocket. 
Messrs.  Newman,  24,  Soho  Square,  have 
fixed  up  some  of  these  bottles  for  me,  and 
they  will,  I have  no  doubt,  supply  them. 

The  general  way  with  artists  is  to  put 
their  uncorked  ink-bottle  in  their  waistcoat 


46 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


pocket ; if  they  should  happen  to  lean  over, 
on  straightening  up  the  ink  is  found  upon 
their  trousers  or  frocks,  or  sketch-block — 
in  the  male  a result  most  conducive  to 
strong  language,  especially  if  the  trousers  are 
spoiled ; the  drawing  doesn’t  so  much  matter. 

Also  provide  yourself  with  a hardish  lead 
pencil  H.,  or,  better,  a blue  one,  as  the 
blue  doesn’t  photograph,  but  it’s  hard  to 
get  off  the  paper,  and  don’t  look  well ; also 
some  lithographic  crayon  or  Wolff’s  carbon 
pencils ; a good  rubber,  pure  rubber  or 
bread  for  the  pencil,  an  ink  rubber  or 
eraser  for  the  ink  ; some  Chinese  white 
and  gum  for  patching  up  things ; and  for 
use  in  the  house,  an  old  razor  to  scratch 
out,  and  out  of  doors  a folding  eraser, 
such  as  Mr.  Percy  Young,  of  Gower 
Street,  supplies : get  the  folding  ones,  as 
the  others  are  not  only  less  convenient  but 
rather  dangerous  to  carry. 


METHODS  OF  DRA  WING. 


47 


Lastly,  the  paper : the  photo-engraver 
will  tell  you  Bristol  board.  Certainly,  a 
simple  open  line  drawing  in  pure  black 
upon  pure  white  smooth  paper,  very  little 
reduced,  should  give  a truer  result  than 
anything  else.  But  what  it  does  really 
is  to  give  engraver  and  printer  less 
trouble,  and  that  is  what  most  of  them 
want ; in  the  majority  of  cases  it  is  best 
to  aid  them,  otherwise  your  work  is  spoiled. 
Therefore,  if  you  like  Bristol  board,  use  it, 
and  use  it  whether  you  like  it  or  no,  if  you 
are  doing  work  for  ordinary  printing.  But 
if  your  illustration  is  to  be  well  engraved 
and  well  printed,  use  what  paper  you  like. 
But  to  get  satisfactory  results  from  rough 
paper  requires  much  experience,  and  you 
had  better  arrive  at  that  experience  by 
doing  simple  things,  in  a fashion  which 
will  engrave  well ; go  to  printing  offices 
and  engravers’  shops,  find  out  what  is 


43 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


necessary,  try  to  work  in  harmony  with  the 
engraver  and  printer,  and  they  will  do 
their  best  for  you  : most  of  them  care  about 
their  work,  and  are  genuinely  sorry  if  they 
cannot  make  yours  look  well,  so  work  with 
them,  and  they  will  work  with  you. 

As  to  the  Bristol  board,  get  the  best ; il 
the  drawing  is  large  and  has  to  be  rolled 
up,  the  thin,  if  not  the  thicker  quality  ; it  is 
known  as  so  many  sheets,  two,  four,  six 
sheets  the  heaviest.  You  must  get  the 
best  quality,  otherwise  there  is  a risk  of 
bad  spongy  places  in  it,  which  may 
almost  ruin  the  drawing,  at  any  rate  its 
appearance,  and  necessitate  patching  up 
which  is  delaying  and  annoying.  Bristol 
boards,  too,  may  always  be  made  up  into 
books  or  blocks.  Some  boards  are  now 
mounted  so  that  they  can  be  stripped  off 
the  mount  when  the  drawing  is  finished, 
among  them  are  Turnbull’s  Art  Tablets ; 


METHODS  OF  DRAWING. 


49 


while  the  best  surface  of  all,  which  is  like 
marble  or  ivory  to  work  on,  a surface 
which  may  be  rubbed  or  scratched  without 
harm,  is  the  old  mounted  thin  Whatman 
or  Bank  Note  paper  prepared  by  Messrs. 
Roberson  and  Newman.  These  thin  papers 
are  mounted  on  heavy  boards  and  kept 
under  hydraulic  pressure  for  weeks,  until 
the  whole  becomes  a solid  mass.  This 
mounted  Whatman,  when  well  made,  is 
the  best  paper  in  the  world  ; it  is  also 
the  most  expensive.  Thin  foreign  corre- 
spondence paper  may  also  be  used,  putting 
it  over  the  sketch  like  tracing  paper,  and 
when  the  drawing  is  finished  mounting  it 
on  card  board ; tracing  paper  may  also  be 
mounted.  One  scheme  not  much  in  vogue 
yet  is  to  draw  upon  black  paper  with 
Chinese  white,  making  the  drawing  in  white 
lines  instead  of  black.  Any  sort  of  writing 
paper,  or  all  varieties  of  rough  or  smooth 


5 


5o 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


Whatman  are  useful.  Of  course  in  drawing 
on  rough  paper  you  are  bound  to  get  a rough 
broken  result  in  printing ; however,  if  you 
know  what  you  are  after,  no  one  will  object 
but  the  engraver.  In  fact  any  sort  of 

white  paper  may  be  used  for  pen  and  ink 
work  ; only,  the  smooth  gives  the  most 
certain  results.  There  are  also  many 
grained  papers  which  give  a tint  ; that  is, 
a mechanical  tint  is  printed  on  the  paper, 
lights  are  scratched  in  it,  blacks  are  put 
in  with  a pen  or  brush,  another  tint  in 
pencil  or  chalk  is  added,  and  many  tricks 
may  be  played,  one  usually  only  a little 
less  satisfactory  than  the  other.  These 
papers  are  made  by  Gillott,  of  Paris,  and 
Anger  and  Goeschl,  of  Vienna,  and  gene- 
rally supplied  by  colourmen ; they  are 
called  Gillott  or  scratch  papers. 

There  are  also  various  clay  or  chalk 
surfaced  papers  which,  after  being  drawn 


METHODS  OF  DR  A WING. 


5i 


upon,  may  be  scratched  to  get  light  in  the 
design.  The  results  are,  however,  rarely 
satisfactory.  In  fact,  it  is  best  to  use  a 
good  hand-made  white  paper  ; you  will  be 
surer  of  your  result,  and  that  is  what  you 
are  working  for. 

Having  given  you  a list  of  the  necessary 
materials,  I will  try  to  tell  you  how  you 
should  use  them.  I shall  not  try  to  com- 
pel you  to  make  short  lines  or  long  lines, 
black  blots  or  white  lines : work  in  your 
own  fashion,  only  that  must  be  good,  and 
capable  of  being  engraved  and  printed. 
I shall  not  tell  you  how  to  draw,  but 
how  to  draw  so  that  your  work  may  re- 
produce and  print  best.  You  may  com- 
mence your  drawing  in  either  one  of  two 
ways,  by  making  a pencil  sketch  on  your 
sheet  of  paper  which  is  to  be  sent  to  the 
engraver,  preferably  in  blue  pencil  which 
does  not  photograph,  and  in  as  few  lines 


52 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


as  possible  ; or  by  commencing  straight  away 
at  your  final  work,  in  ink  ; if  it  is  a drawing 
from  nature,  I do  not  see  why  you  should 
not  do  this,  for  it  will  teach  you  care  in 
selecting  your  lines  and  putting  them 
down.  And  as  you  have  an  ink  eraser  in 
metal  and  rubber  you  should  be  able  to 
remove  those  which  are  wrong. 

But  if  your  design  is  more  in  the  nature 
of  a composition  with  elaborate  figures,  or 
figures  in  action,  it  will  be  almost  impos- 
sible to  do  this.  True,  most  interesting 
sketches  may  be  made,  and  should  be  made 
and  must  be  made  direct  from  nature. 
But  your  final  design  will  in  nearly  every 
case  have  to  be  built  up  from  these. 
Therefore,  unless  you  can  “see  the  whole 
thing  in  your  head  ” before  you  put  it  on 
paper,  so  clearly  that  you  only  want  a 
model  to  keep  you  right,  I think  you  had 
better  make  sketch  after  sketch,  and  then 


METHODS  OF  DRAWING. 


53 


transfer  the  best  to  the  sheet  on  which  it 
is  to  be  completed  by  putting  transfer  paper 
under  the  sketch  and  tracing  paper  over 
it.  Probably  you  will  pencil  on  the  final 
drawing,  but  do  as  little  as  you  can,  for 
the  camera,  when  the  drawing  comes  to  be 
photographed,  pays  just  as  much  attention 
to  smudges,  finger  marks,  pencil  lines,  and 
meaningless  accidents  as  it  does  to  those 
portions  which  are  brim  full  of  meaning. 
By  neglecting  these  matters  all  artists  give 
engravers  much  trouble,  and  unless  the 
engraver  is  an  artist  too  he  not  infre- 
quently bestows  great  pains  on  the  repro- 
duction of  an  accidental  line,  even  though 
in  order  to  do  so  he  ruins  the  entire  draw- 
ing. And  again,  in  all  cheap  work  your 
drawing  is  placed  with  a number  of  others 
and  no  special  attention  is  paid  to  it, 
and  it  reproduces  somehow,  or  don’t,  which 
is  much  the  same  thing.  But  in  case 


54 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


of  failure  you  will  be  blamed  by  the 
public. 

The  first  thing  to  remember  in  putting 
your  drawing  on  the  paper  is  the  space  it 
is  to  fill  ; if  it  is  to  be  a full  page,  it  must 
be  made  the  size  of  that  page  or  twice  as 
large  ; at  any  rate  it  must  have  some 
definite  relation  to  it.  In  the  case  of  half 
a page,  it  is  only  necessary  that  the  top 
or  bottom  of  the  drawing  should  fit  across 
the  printed  matter  ; still,  the  drawing  should 
not  be  made  so  high  that  it  will  not  fit  in, 
or  so  narrow  as  to  be  ineffective,  but  if 
you  will  look  at  any  book  or  magazine  you 
will  see  what  I mean. 

Again,  for  cheap  rapid  work  as  little 
cross-hatching  as  possible  should  be 
indulged  in,  for  all  cross-hatched  lozenges 
become  smaller  lozenges  in  reduction,  and 
the  smaller  they  are  the  easier  it  is  for 
them  to  fill  up  and  clog  with  ink.  Draw 


METHODS  OF  DRAWING. 


55 


your  shadows  with  parallel  lines  whenever 
you  can  without  being  mechanical  ; they  dc 
not  fill  up,  but  engrave  and  print  well. 

After  several  years’  experience  I am 
quite  unable  to  say  how  much  or  how 
little  a drawing  should  be  reduced,  for 
there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  be  drawn 
the  same  size  it  is  to  be  engraved,  save 
that  the  nearer  it  is  the  same  size,  the 
nearer  the  result  should  be  to  the  original ; 
if  the  reduction  is  to  be  great,  it  is  easier 
to  make  the  design  larger  and  have  it 
mechanically  reduced.  The  excessive  re- 
duction of  a drawing  tends  to  make  the 
lines  run  together  into  a black  mass  some- 
times, and  the  enlargement  of  a drawing — 
this,  too,  may  be  done — makes  the  lines 
at  times  look  crude  and  clumsy.  But  it 
is  impossible  to  foretell  results  in  any  two 
cases.  Only  there  is  one  matter  . a good 
drawing-  in  line  will,  with  good  engraving 

O ' O O O 


56 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


and  printing,  look  well,  whether  the  artist 
knew  anything  of  process  or  not.  But 
there  are  some  things  to  be  observed,  if 

o 

certain  results  are  wished  for. 

In  simple  cheap  work  the  ink  should 
be  uniformly  black,  for  the  engraved  block 
will  be  put  with  type,  and  inked  with  the 
same  amount  and  strength  of  colour  all 
over ; therefore,  in  order  to  get  variety, 
distance,  effect,  you  must  use  lines  of 
different  widths,  placed  at  varying  distances 
apart,  not  of  different  degrees  of  colour. 
In  theory  at  least,  then,  the  foreground 
should  be  drawn  with  a firm  bold  line, 
the  middle  distance  with  a medium-sized 
line,  the  lines  themselves  closer  together, 
and  the  extreme  distance  with  a thin  line. 
But  there  is  no  rule,  only  get  variety  in 
your  line  and  this  will  produce  variety  and 
interest  in  the  engraved  result. 

If  you  make  your  drawings  much  larger 


METHODS  OF  DR  A WING. 


57 


than  they  are  to  be  reproduced,  you  will 
often  be  greatly  surprised  at  the  change 
in  their  appearance.  Greys  will,  by  filling 
up,  become  darker,  and  lights  lighter  owing 
to  the  concentration  around  them  of  masses 
of  colour ; that  is,  blacks  become  blacker, 
and  whites  whiter  in  reproduction.  But  do 
remember  that  though  the  drawings  by  Boyd 
Houghton,  Millais,  F.  Walker  and  Pinwell 
were  made  the  size  you  see  them,  on  the 
wood,  in  the  books  of  twenty-five  years 
ago,  the  drawings  made  to-day  by  Abbey, 
for  example,  are  four  or  five  times  as  large 
as  the  published  engravings,  and  are  not, 
in  the  originals,  filled  with  that  microscopic 
work  which  appears  in  the  reproductions. 
But  do  not  make  crude  lines  under  the 
impression  that  they  will  ever  be  anything 
but  crude.  Try  to  make  a beautiful  draw- 
ing, a beautiful  line — unless  you  can  do  this 
you  will  never  get  a beautiful  reproduction ; 


58  THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS \ 

and  once  you  have  learned  to  draw,  study 
the  best  books  and  the  best  magazines, 
always  remembering  that  drawings  to-day 
are  made  much  larger,  as  a rule,  than  you 
see  them  on  the  printed  page. 

Again,  in  reproduction  you  will  often 
find  that  some  parts  of  the  same  drawing 
change  more  than  others ; some  places,  for 
example,  become  too  weak,  others  too 
strong.  1 cannot  explain  this,  but  you  will 
find  that  it  does  happen.  At  times  it 
may  be  because  the  photograph  is  bad, 
or  the  etching  is  rotten,  but  even  with 
good  photography  and  etching  the  final 
result  is  often  disappointing. 

In  pen  work  you  may  run  the  gamut 
from  solid  blacks  to  the  most  delicate 
grey  line.  Do  not  try  to  always,  but 
select  a colour  scheme  which  is  restrained 
and  appropriate  to  every  drawing. 

Solid  black  will  reproduce  best  because 


METHODS  OF  DR  A WING. 


59 


it  is  a solid  mass,  excepting  in  cheap  rapid 
printing,  when  solid  blacks  either  get  too 
much  or  too  little  ink.  A number  of 
black  lines  close  together  will  reproduce 
almost  equally  well,  because  in  engraving 
and  printing  these  lines  support  the  paper 
and  do  not  take  up  too  much  ink.  A 
single  thin  line,  on  the  contrary,  always 
thickens  in  the  engraving,  and  often  prints 
badly  because  in  the  printing  press  the 
ink  and  paper  bear  down  too  heavily 
upon  it  and  it  receives  too  much  ink  and 
thickens  up. 

I have  recommended  you  to  use  only 
black  ink  and  white  paper ; before  you 
have  worked  much  you  will  try  experi- 
ments, I am  sure,  in  greying  ink,  putting 
water  with  it,  and  leaving  pencil  marks, 
or  adding  lines  with  lithographic  chalk,  or 
crayon  ; but  you  will  find  out  the  moment 
the  drawing  is  printed  that  everything 


6o 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


comes  quite  black,  and  if  you  have  made 
your  distance  in  broad  grey  lines  it  will 
possibly  ruin  your  whole  scheme.  Greys 
may  be  obtained  by  engraving  the  blocks 
by  hand,  rouletting,  or  a number  of  other 
ways  which  I shall  explain.  Line  draw- 
ings  may  also  be  made  altogether  in 
pencil,  on  rough  paper,  in  chalk  or 
crayon,  reinforced,  if  necessary,  with  a blot 
of  ink,  or  a wash,  or  a line  with  a pen  here 
and  there ; but  for  line  work  with  these 
materials  you  must  employ  a grained  paper 
in  order  to  get  a proper  mechanical  direct 
reproduction  of  the  work.  Bristol  boards 
must  not  be  used.  Sometimes  these  com- 
binations of  pen  and  pencil  work  are  ex- 
cellent ; but  they  must  harmonise,  other- 
wise the  result  is  unpleasant. 

Some  idea  of  the  effect  your  drawing 
will  .present  when  engraved  may  be 
obtained  by  the  use  of  a diminishing 


METHODS  OF  DRAWING. 


61 


glass  ; and,  vice  versa , you  might  study 
some  of  the  engravings  in  the  books  and 
magazines  around  you  with  a magnifying 
glass.  Drawings  are  made  larger  than  they 
are  to  be  reproduced  to-day,  because  it  is 
easier  for  most  people  to  draw  on  a large 
scale  than  a small. 

Corrections  in  line  drawings  with  pen 

\ 

should  be  made  either  with  an  ink  eraser, 
a razor,  the  razor  knife,  or  by  painting 
over  the  place  with  Chinese  white,  or,  if 
it  be  large,  by  pasting  down  a bit  of 
paper  on  it.  This  is  the  most  usual  way  ; 
if  the  paper  is  thin  and  the  edges  well 
joined,  it  is  the  best.  Or  you  may  cut  a 
hole  from  the  back  and  let  in  a bit  of 
paper,  paring  down  the  edges,  or  scraping 
them  down  ; but  be  careful  about  the 
edges,  because  they  make  a nasty  line 
when  the  drawing  is  photographed.  In 
pencil,  crayon,  or  charcoal  work,  remove 


62 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


imperfections  in  the  ordinary  way  with  a bit 
of  rubber.  You  will  not,  of  course,  lose  your 
head  and  elaborate  a pen  drawing,  any  more 
than  you  would  a chalk  or  charcoal  drawing 
or  etching.  You  will  select  your  lines  with 
the  utmost  care,  put  them  down  with  the 
greatest  intelligence,  and  the  more  care  and 
intelligence  you  exercise  the  better  will  be 
your  illustrations ; however,  this  is  what  you 
are  trying  to  do  every  time  you  make  a 
drawing  in  line  from  life  or  the  antique,  and 
I will  not  bore  you  by  repeating  what  you 
hear  every  day  in  your  ordinary  school 
work,  nor  will  I do  more  than  remind  you 
how  careful  you  must  be  in  your  composition, 
in  your  arrangement  of  lines,  in  your  placing 
of  blacks,  in  making  up  your  picture  ; only 
exercise  the  judgment  necessary  to  compose 
any  other  work  of  art. 

Your  drawings  should  be  works  of  art ; 
be  proud  of  them  ; but  also  regard  them  as 


METHODS  OF  DRAWING . 


63 


a means  to  an  end,  and,  as  I have  said,  for 
cheap  and  rapid  printing  draw  on  smooth 
white  paper  with  good  black  ink,  and  do 
not  use  big  solid  blacks,  or  single  thin  lines. 
Keep  your  work  as  open  as  you  are  able,  and 
do  not  have  it  reduced.  That  is,  draw  as 
near  the  size  it  is  to  appear  (if  you  can  find 
that  out)  as  possible.  For  the  best  en- 
graving and  printing,  draw  as  you  like. 
Anything  to-day  can  be  photographed  and 
engraved  ; the  great  difficulty  is  in  the 
printing.  Remember  that  if  you  do  not 
put  distinction  and  character  into  your 
work,  the  engraver  and  printer  cannot. 
They  will  take  much  away  in  any  case. 

As  you  are  working  for  an  editor,  you 
will  have  to  please  him.  Do  so  if  you 
can  without  hurting  your  work  and  your 
own  standard  of  right  and  wrong. 

But  always  work  in  your  own  way,  if 
that  is  at  all  possible  for  reproduction  and 


64 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


printing,  if  it  is  not,  you  will  have  to 
change  your  methods.  For  you  are  work- 
ing for  a definite  purpose,  illustration ; 
therefore  your  work  must  engrave  and 
print. 

If  you  wish  to  succeed  you  must  see  all 
the  illustration  you  can,  you  must  talk  to 
editors  and  illustrators,  and  you  must  go 
down  into  the  printing  office  and  the 
engraver’s  shop. 

You  must  learn  your  trade,  for  if  you 
have  not  passed  through  the  drudgery  of 
the  apprentice,  you  will  never  become  a 
master  of  your  craft. 


LECTURE  IV. 


THE  REPRODUCTION  OF  LINE  DRAWINGS. 
S illustrators,  or  would-be  illustrators, 


your  work  is  not  at  an  end  with 
the  completion  of  your  drawings  ; you 
must  look  after  them  while  they  are 
being  engraved,  and  you  should  see  them 
through  the  press.  From  the  time  you 
are  given  a commission  to  illustrate  a 
subject  until  the  printed  result  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  public,  the  work  in  all  its 
stages  should  be  the  object  of  your  un- 
tiring attention.  It  is  true  that  at  present 
the  fact  that  you  take  an  interest  in 
your  profession  will  be  counted  against 
you  in  some  quarters,  for  should  you 


6 


66 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


happen — as  is  not  unlikely — to  know  more 
of  drawing,  engraving,  and  printing  than 
the  art  editor,  the  engraver,  or  the 
printer,  your  suggestions  will  not  be  re- 
ceived with  enthusiasm,  nor  your  criti- 
cisms with  delight.  Suggestions  mean 
changes,  and  criticism  means  objections 
to  the  routine  way  of  doing  things.  Then 
you  may  not  feel  a great  interest  in  the 
scientific  side  of  your  work,  yet  chemistry 
plays  an  important  part  in  illustration. 
The  mechanical  reproduction  of  drawings 
is  based  entirely  on  chemical  action,  and 
you  must  know  something  of  this  matter  if 
you  would  get  good  results. 

But  let  us  consider  the  whole  subject. 
Drawings  in  line  were  originally,  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  reproduced  by  wood 
cutting ; 1 that  is  to  say,  the  drawing  was 

1 Of  course  I shall  refer  to  metal  engraving  in 
another  lecture, 


/ 


THE  REPRODUCTION  OF  LINE  DRA  WINGS.  67 

made  in  line  with  pen,  point,  or  brush  on 
the  side  of  a plank,  and  all  those  portions 
of  the  block  which  were  not  drawn  upon 
were  cut  away  with  knives  and  chisels, 
the  design  only  remaining  in  relief ; this 
relief  was  dabbed  over  with  ink  or  paint, 
and  a piece  of  damp  paper  was  laid  on  it. 
The  back  of  this  paper  was  rubbed,  bur- 
nished, or  pressed  on  to  the  inked  surface 
of  the  block  and  took  up  the  ink  from 
it ; on  removing  the  paper  an  impression 
in  reverse  of  the  inked  block  was  found 
on  the  under  side  of  it.  And  this  was  the 
method,  with  improvements,  employed  in 
printing  from  type,  for  three  hundred 
years. 

About  the  beginning  of  this  century  the 
design  began  to  be  drawn  upon  the  end 
of  a block  of  box-wood — a cross  section  of 
• it  — and  the  parts  left  blank  were  cut 
away  with  gravers,  tools  used  by  em 


1 


68 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


gravers  in  metal,  or  else  lines  were  engraved 
on  the  blackened  surface  of  the  block,  which 
printed  as  whites  in  the  black  ; the  grain  of 
the  cross  section  of  box-wood  was  firmer 
and  finer,  and  with  the  gravers  more  deli- 
cate lines  could  be  engraved  and  more  true 
results  obtained  ; and  at  the  same  time  con- 
tinual improvements  were  being  made  in  the 
presses,  steam  being  substituted  for  hand 
power,  and  the  manufacture  of  paper  and 
ink  totally  revolutionised. 

These  methods  were  employed  until 
about  1865,  when,  instead  of  the  drawings 
being  made  by  the  artists  on  the  block  of 
wood,  they  began  to  be  drawn  on  paper  in 
line,  and  then  photographed  on  to  the 
wood.  This  was  a great  improvement, 
because  the  artist  could  now  make  his 
designs  of  any  size  he  wished  and  have 
them  photographed  down  to  the  required 
dimensions  and  reversed  for  him  : the  mere 


THE  REP  ROD  UC  TIOA  OF  LINE  DRAWINGS.  69 

reversing  in  many  cases  was  both  tedious 
and  uninteresting.1 

The  final  step  which  brings  us  to  the 
present,  though  not  by  any  means,  I am 
sure,  to  the  end  of  the  chapter,  is  the 
superseding  of  the  woodcutter  or  wood  en- 
graver in  line,  by  the  mechanical  engraver 
in  metal  or  gelatine. 

Now  you  may  do  your  drawings,  if  you 
wish,  in  line  with  a pencil  or  brush  upon 
the  prepared  piece  of  box-wood,  and  the 
engraver  may  cut  away  all  those  portions 
of  the  wood-block  which  you  have  not 
touched,  remembering  always  that  though 
you  draw  freely  he  must  engrave  labori- 
ously, and  the  more  free  your  drawing 
becomes,  the  more  complicated  must  his 
engraving  be.  So  when  you  make  a 
sketchy  drawing  on  wood,  none  but  the 

1 If  the  drawing  is  a portrait  of  a place,  it  must 
be  reversed  on  the  wood  or  metal  in  order  that  the 
print  may  appear  as  the  original  does  in  nature. 


70 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


most  accomplished  engraver  can  retain 

that  look  of  freedom  and  sketchiness ; if 

% 

the  lines  of  the  drawing  become  really 
complicated,  in  cross  hatching,  for  example, 
he  cannot  follow  them,  he  must  suggest 
them.  Hence,  unless  the  engraver  really 
loves  this  sort  of  work,  it  is  but  drudgery, 
and  the  better  the  reproduction  the  more 
skilled  labour  wasted. 

Now  photography  has  changed  all  this. 
A photograph  of  the  drawing,  of  the  re- 
quired size  it  is  to  appear  on  the  printed 
page,  is  taken.  The  drawing  may  be  en- 
larged or  reduced  to  this  size,  and  the 
negative  thus  obtained  is  placed  in  reverse 
in  a photographic  printing  frame,  in  con- 
tact with  a sensitised  zinc  plate,  coated 
with  a thin  film  either  of  albumen  or 
bitumen,  or  it  may  be  that  a gelatine 
film  is  the  material  used  for  printing  on. 
In  the  first  method  the  albumen  coated 


THE  REPRODUCTION  OF  LINE  DRA  WINGS.  71 

piece  of  zinc  is  removed  from  the  printing 
frame  as  soon  as  the  photographic  print  has 
been  made  ; it  is  then  coated  with  ink 
and  placed  in  water,  the  albumen  and  ink 
upon  it  adhere  to  those  parts  of  the  zinc 
which  have  been  exposed  to  light,  and 
may  be  washed  off  the  other  parts,  thus 
leaving  the  picture  on  the  zinc  in  ink. 
By  the  bitumen  process  the  picture  is 
printed  in  the  same  way  : the  plate  is 
placed  in  a bath  of  turpentine,  the  picture 
appears  on  the  zinc,  and  the  bitumen 
dissolves  off  the  other  parts. 

If  these  two  prints  are  now  covered  with 
powdered  rosin,  gum,  and  ink,  they  may  be 
placed  in  a bath  of  nitric  acid  and  water,  and 
the  exposed  parts  bitten  or  etched  away. 
This  is  a most  interesting  and  delicate  pro- 
cess, and  success  depends  in  good  work  more 
upon  the  skill  and  artistic  intelligence  of 
the  etcher  than  the  chemicals  used.  The 


72  THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 

object  is  to  remove  all  the  whites  as  in  wood 
engraving,  and  leave  the  blacks.  After  the 
zinc  has  been  bitten  a short  time  it  is  taken 
out  of  the  bath,  again  covered  with  gum, 
resin,  and  ink  to  protect  it  from  the  acid, 
heated,  when  the  protecting  mass  melts  and 
runs  down  the  sides  of  the  bitten  lines  and  pro- 
tects them  also;  this  process  is  continued  until 
the  block  is  sufficiently  etched.  When  the 
exposed  parts  are  all  eaten  away  the  picture 
appears  in  relief.  This  occupies  a few  hours, 
maybe  but  an  hour  or  less.  When  completed, 
the  zinc  picture  is  mounted  upon  a piece  of 
wood,  to  make  it  the  same  height  as  the  type, 
placed  in  a printing  press  and  copies  are  made 
of  it,  or  from  electrotypes  or  stereotypes,  at 
the  rate  of  from  twenty  to  20,00c  an  hour. 
This  is,  I hope,  an  intelligible  outline  of  the 
photo-engraving  process  ; 1 every  mechanical 
engraver  has  some  variation  wffiich  is  his 


1 See  Preface. 


THE  REPRODUCTION  OF  LINE  DRA  WINGS.  73 

carefully  guarded  secret.  The  blocks  may 
be  of  zinc  or  copper  or  other  metal,  and  all 
sorts  of  chemicals  are  used.  But  I cannot 
too  strongly  impress  upon  you  that  good 
work  in  mechanical  engraving  is  only  to  be 
obtained  by  artistic  workmen ; still,  remark- 
able results  are  to  be  seen  all  about,  even  in 
the  cheapest  prints.  But  the  very  best  pro- 
cess engravings  are  produced  only  by  men 
who  are  artists  and  care  for  each  block.  In 
the  case  of  the  best  engravers  they  will 
know  better  than  you  which  process  to  use, 
and  there  is  no  more  necessity  for  you  to  try 
to  tell  a mechanical  engraver  how  the  work 
is  to  be  done,  than  lor  you  to  tell  a wood 
engraver  what  tools  he  shall  work  with. 
Bad  drawings  may  look  better  by  one  pro- 
cess than  another,  and  good  illustrations  may 
be  spoiled  more  by  one  method  than  another. 
But  every  intelligent  engraver  will  try  again 
and  again  until  he  gets  the  best  result  he  can. 


74 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


The  gelatine  process  consists  in  printing 
the  picture  on  a sensitised  film  of  gelatine. 
Now  if  this  gelatine  is  soaked  in  water  the 
parts  representing  the  whites  swell,  and  the 
darks,  really  the  picture,  remain  as  they  were, 
as  the  light  has  rendered  them  insensible  to 
water  ; from  this  swelled  gelatine  mould  a 
cast  in  plaster  of  Paris  can  be  taken,  from 
this  a wax  mould  is  made,  and  finally  an 
electrotype.  The  process  is  only  used,  I 
believe,  by  one  firm  ; the  results  are  good, 
but  no  better  than  the  others. 

Let  us  consider  for  a moment  what  are 
the  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  me- 
chanical reproduction.  The  first  advantage 
is  rapidity  of  production — a facsimile  wood 
engraving  may  take  weeks  to  produce,  a 
mechanical  engraving  takes  a day  or  so ; 
this  is  not  an  artistic  but  a commercial 
gain.  The  wood  engraving  loses,  the  more 
intricate  and  complicated  and  close  the  details 


THE  REPRODUCTION  OF  LINE  DRA  WINGS.  75 

f 

become;  the  mechanical  or  process  engraving 
not  infrequently  gains. 

The  wood  engraver  may  make  mistakes 
in  cutting  the  lines  in  the  wood  block,  but  if 
the  lines  are  properly  put  down,  the  camera 
and  the  process  engraver  should  not ; and  if 
they  do,  much  less  time  is  lost  and  labour 
wasted  than  with  wood  engravings. 

Mechanical  engraving  is  a much  less  costly 
method.  These  are  not  any  of  them  very 
artistic  reasons,  but  they  count  with  pub- 
lishers, and  they  count  with  you.  But  the 
great  artistic  advantage  is  that  the  artist 
may  make  his  drawing  of  any  size  he  wishes  ; 
it  is  not  cut  to  pieces  but  preserved,  and  if 
it  is  properly  drawn,  as  I have  explained  to 
you,  it  should  produce  in  complicated  work 
a more  faithful  result.  In  simple  line  work 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  tell  a wood  engrav- 
ing from  a process  block. 

The  drawbacks  are  that  the  line  is  some- 


76 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


times  too  faithfully  copied — that  the  engrav- 
ing is  shallow,  and  that  the  wood  yields  a 
richer,  fatter  effect  than  any  metal,  mechanical 
block. 

These  are  artistic  drawbacks,  but  they  may 
all  be  overcome  by  the  artist.  The  line,  if 
good,  cannot  be  too  faithfully  copied ; the 
engraving,  if  shallow,  can  be  made  deeper, 
engraved  anew  by  the  wood  engraver.  The 
fat  line  so  much  prized  was  made  with  a 
brush,  and,  as  I have  said,  brush  work  repro- 
duces perfectly.  And  in  the  majority  of 
cases  the  original  wood  or  process  blocks 
are  never  printed  from,  but  casts  of  them 
called  stereotypes  or  electrotypes  are  used ; 
therefore  the  fat  line  or  the  wood  is  more 
or  less  the  product  of  the  imagination.  I 
do  not  mean  to  say  the  original  wood  or 
metal  block  will  not  give  a richer  impression 
than  any  cast  from  it,  but  I do  say  it  is  only 
in  the  case  of  proofs  that  the  original  is  used. 


THE  REPRODUCTION  OF  LINE  1)RA  WINGS.  77 

If  a pencil  or  other  drawing  in  line  is  to  be 
reproduced,  in  which  the  varying  colour  of 
the  pencil  mark  is  to  be  retained,  its  grey- 
ness for  example,  or  if  the  pen  line  is  very 
delicate,  or  there  are  many  single  unsup- 
ported lines  in  the  drawing,  another  method 
must  be  employed. 

A microscopically  ruled  glass  screen,  ruled 
with  fine  lines  made  with  a diamond,  is  placed 
in  the  camera  in  front  of  the  glass  plate  on 
which  the  picture  is  to  be  photographed. 
There  are  various  ways  in  which  this  is 
done,  with  the  object  of  breaking  up  into 
line  the  tones  which  would  otherwise  print 
perfectly  black,  or,  of  supporting  those  weak 
lines  which  would  print  too  heavily.  This 
negative  thus  obtained  is  printed  on  to  the 
zinc  or  copper  plate,  is  then  etched  much  as 
in  the  case  of  the  simple  line  block.  This 
process,  usually  called  half-tone,  was  invented 
for  reproducing  wash,  but  is  much  used 


78 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


now  for  line,  especially  when  the  dots  or  line 
of  the  screen  are  cut  away  by  the  wood 
engraver  in  the  whites.  The  photo  engraver 
is  now  endeavouring  so  to  shift  or  adjust  his 
screen  that  the  dots  will  come  only  where 
they  are  wanted,  and  some  most  interesting 
results  have  been  obtained.  When  I am  de- 
scribing the  reproduction  of  wash  drawings, 

I shall  return  to  this  subject. 

Spaces  of  tint  on  line  drawings  can  be  and 
almost  always  are  obtained  by  the  use  of 
what  is  known  as  shading  mediums  ; that  is, 

i 

pieces  of  gelatine  or  copper  with  lines  or  dots 
engraved  in  them  are  filled  with  printer’s  ink, 
and  these  lines  or  dots  are  transferred  by  the 
engraver  to  the  parts  of  the  picture  on  the 
zinc  plate  where  they  are  wanted  before  the 
plate  is  etched. 

There  are  many  ways  in  which  the  artist 
can  get  the  same  effect  by  inking  bits  of  silk 
and  pressing  them  on  the  drawing,  by  inking  ' 


THE  REPRODUCTION  OF  LINE  DR  A WINGS.  7 9 

his  thumb,  or  by  drawing  with  a pencil  or 
chalk  or  even  pen  over  a rough  book-cover, 
the  only  object  is  to  get  a bit  of  tone  in  a 
line  drawing  : in  cheap  work  it  is  often  very 

effective,  in  the  best  work  it  is  usually  out  of 

\ 

place.  All  the  artist  need  do  is  indicate  the 
spot,  or  the  outlines  of  the  parts  where  the 
tint  is  wanted,  by  a blue  pencil.  If  the 
engraver  knows  how  the  block  is  to  be  printed 
he  will  use  the  tint  that  will  print  best.  They 
are  all  useful,  but  not  very  sympathetic. 

Photo-Lithography  and  kindred  methods 
are  either  of  little  importance  or  will  be 
referred  to  under  Lithography. 

Finally,  if  the  lines  are  too  black  or  too 
strong  they  can  be  cut  away  or  thinned,  or 
darks  opened  up  by  the  engraver,  just  as  on 
a wood  block;  or  a little  wheel  in  a handle 
called  a roulette  may  be  run  over  parts  of 
the  engraving  which  are  too  heavy — the 
teeth  of  the  wheel  break  the  lines  into  dots 
and  lighten  them 


LECTURE  V. 


THE  MAKING  OF  WASH  DRAWINGS  AND 
THEIR  REPRODUCTION  BY  MECHANICAL 

PROCESS. 


HEN  I speak  of  wash  drawings,  I 


would  really  refer  to  all  painting  or 
drawing,  in  colour  or  monochrome,  in  tone, 
as  distinguished  from  work  in  line,  which  was 
the  subject  of  my  last  lecture. 

Many  persons  do  not  like  line  work,  never 
master  it,  and  are  insensible  to  its  beauty 
when  they  see  it.  For  these  there  is  another 
method  of  expression,  although,  I cannot 
repeat  too  often,  an  illustrator  should  be  able 
to  work  in  more  ways  than  one.  One  may 
make  one’s  illustration  in  colour  in  oil,  in 


80 


THE  MAKING  OF  WASH  DRA  WINGS.  81 


gouache,  in  body  colour,  in  wash ; in  fact  paint 
a picture  in  the  usual  way,  though,  even  with 
the  best  and  most  careful  methods  of  repro- 

4 

duction,  it  will  be  almost  invariably  found 
that  in  the  various  stages  of  photographing, 
etching  and  printing,  very  much,  if  not  all, 
the  charm  has  disappeared,  even  though  the 
result  be  printed  in  colour,  for  up  to  the 
present  no  colour  can  be  perfectly  repro- 
duced, or  rendered  into  black  and  white, 
even  by  the  best  engraver  in  the  world. 
And  no  colour  can  be  reproduced  except 
by  the  artist  himself.  A few  men  like 
Detaille,  De  Neuville,  and  Lynch  have,  I 
believe,  invented  a special  colour  scheme 
for  the  requirements  of  colour  reproduction, 
and  some  of  the  engravings  made  from  their 
pictures  by  Messrs.  Boussod,  Valladon  & Co. 
are  very  wonderful ; but  in  the  best  examples 
I imagine  there  is  an  enormous  amount  of 
careful  touching  up  and  going  over  by  hand, 


7 


82 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


which  places  these  reproductions  in  the 
category  of  proofs  rather  than  of  prints. 
Certainly  there  is  a vast  difference  between 
them  and  the  colour  work  usually  seen  in  the 
same  firm’s  commercial  publications,  good  as 
they  are,  and  there  is  a yawning  gulf  between 
these  and  the  colour  print  we  have  with  us 
always.  Therefore,  if  you  wish  to  work  in 
oil  I would  suggest  that  you  work  in  mono- 
chrome, and  further  I would  advise  you  to 
make  your  designs  in  simple  black  and  white 
— that  is  if  the  reproduction  is  to  be  printed 
with  black  ink  ; for  the  nearer  vour  original 

7 * O 

is  to  the  colour  in  which  it  is  to  be  printed, 
the  nearer  will  the  engraver  and  printer  be 
able  to  approach  it.  I would  also  suggest 
that  perfectly  dead  colours  should  be  used, 
because  varnish  or  any  sort  of  glaze,  shine 
or  glitter,  will  tell  in  the  photograph,  and 
even  the  most  careful  engravers  are  rather 


THE  MAKING  OF  WASH  DRAWINGS.  83 

given  to  reproducing  the  photographic  copy 
than  the  original,  even  though  the  latter  be 
at  their  side. 

One  method,  that  has  been  successful  lately, 
is  mixing  oil  colour  with  turpentine  until  it 
Hows  like  water,  and  then  working  on  paper  ; 
this  reproduces  most  excellently,  the  only 
drawback  being  that  the  colour  rubs  off 
easily. 

Body  colour  and  gouache  are  much  used  ; 
the  only  thing  to  be  remembered  is  that  you 
should  keep  to  the  same  colours  and  the 
same  method  of  work  all  the  way  through 
each  drawing.  It  is  very  interesting  to 
combine  body  colour  with  wash  ; often  in 
the  original  design  the  combination  is  most 
pleasing,  but  the  camera  does  not  approve 
of  it,  and  frequently  plays  the  most  un- 
expected tricks  with  these  combinations. 
Therefore,  either  stick  to  body  colour,  lamp 


»4 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


black,  ivory  black  and  white,1  or  pure  wash ; in 
the  latter  case  there  is  nothing  which  photo- 
graphs so  well  as  charcoal  grey,  made  by 
Newman  & Co.  The  most  delicate  washes 
reproduce  beautifully.  It  is  rather  hard  to 
manage,  but  once  you  can  manage  it,  it  is 
almost  perfect.  It  is  best  for  work  in  a very 
light  key,  in  the  extreme  darks  it  is  liable  to 
get  heavy  and  sombre  and  gritty  ; and  if  you 
want  a positive  black  it  is  well  to  put  it  in 
with  ink  or  some  stronger  black,  even  at  the 
risk  of  knocking  things  rather  out  of  tone. 
The  only  objection  to  charcoal  grey  is  that  it 
is  rather  difficult  to  work  over  it.  Still,  in 
illustration  in  wash  you  will  always  get  a 
cleaner,  sharper  effect  by  doing  your  drawing 
at  once,  getting  your  effect  right  with  the  first 
wash,  than  by  any  amount  of  tinkering  at  it. 

1 Winsor  & Newton  and  Reeves  have  lately 
been  experimenting  in  this  way,  and  their  Albanine 
and  Process  black  are  well  spoken  of  by  photo 
engravers. 


THE  MAKING  OF  WASH  DRAWINGS.  85 

In  this  pure  wash  work  you  should  be 
careful,  very  careful,  not  to  let  any  meaning- 
less pencil  lines  show  through,  as  they  always 
photograph,  cannot  be  taken  out,  and  at  times 
spoil  the  whole  effect ; in  fact,  imperfections  in 
wash  drawings  always  reproduce  more  per- 
fectly than  the  perfections  themselves,  and  it 
is  well  to  keep  your  paper  reasonably  clean, 
to  avoid  smudging,  blots  and  lines,  or  other- 
wise you  will  be  disappointed  in  the  result. 
It  is  often  very  effective  in  an  original  drawing 
to  put  in  a lot  of  colour,  but  it  nearly  always 
comes  out  wrongly  in  the  reproduction.  On 
the  other  hand,  although  body  colour  often 
comes  badly  with  wash,  if  you  work  over  or 
into  either  your  wash  or  body  colour  with 
pen,  chalk,  or  pencil  of  the  same  substance 
as  the  wash,  the  result  is  harmonious  often 
and  excellent.  I mean,  if  you  make  a draw- 
ing in  wash  with  Indian  ink  and  work  on  it 
with  liquid  Indian  ink  in  a pen,  the  result  will 


86 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


be  right.  If  you  touch  up  charcoal  grey  with 
charcoal,  the  wash  and  line  unite  — these 
things,  however,  you  will  soon  learn  by  ex- 
perience, even  though  that  experience  is 
gained  in  a rather  painful  manner.  Still,  at 
present  the  better  magazines  and  papers  are 
not  a practising  ground  for  students,  as  they 
were  some  time  ago,  and  you  must  be  able 
to  do  good  work  before  you  can  expect  any 
intelligent  editor  to  print  it. 

Drawings  or  paintings — in  fact  all  work  in 
tone  is  reproduced  mechanically  by  what  is 
known  as  the  half-tone  process,  which  I 
referred  to  briefly  in  my  last  lecture. 

The  drawing  is  photographed,  but  in  front 
of  the  sensitised  glass,  a microscopically  ruled 
screen  is  placed  to  break  up  this  tone  into 
dots  or  lines,  really  to  get  the  same  effect  as 
the  wood  engraver  obtains  with  his  dots  and 

o 

lines.  Otherwise,  the  tones  being  flat,  or 
even  if  they  are  gradated,  would  print  as 


THE  MAKING  OF  WASH  DRAWINGS . 87 

a black  mass  ; but  these  screens  break  up  the 
masses  into  little  squares,  which  receive  the 
printing  ink  on  their  faces,  and  the  colour  or 
original  effect  of  the  picture  is  thus  pre- 
served. It  is  rather  difficult  to  explain  this, 
but  the  screen  produces  white  lines  in  the 
darks  and  dark  lines  in  the  whites  ; you  can 
see  them  by  looking  at  any  block.  After- 
wards, the  process  is  exactly  the  same  as  for 
line  drawings.  This  reproduction  of  wash 
work  is  very  uncertain  ; good  effects  are  ob- 
tained, about  as  often  as  failures.  The 
delicate  tones  are  not  infrequently  altogether 
lost.  There  are  no  positive  blacks  or  whites, 
but  a uniform  grey  tint  covers  the  entire 
block,  in  which  all  delicacy  is  often  hidden. 
Therefore,  to  get  a good  effect,  when 
printed,  the  drawing  should  be  simply  made, 
that  is  if  it  is  for  cheap  engraving  and 
rapid  printing ; but  if  for  the  best  books 
and  magazines,  wood  engravers  may  be  em- 


88 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


ployed  to  remedy  the  imperfections  of  the 
photograph  and  the  mistakes  of  the  etcher. 
That  is,  whites  may  be  cut,  blacks  toned 
down,  lines  thinned,  or  large  spaces  on  the 
block  may  be  left  for  the  engraver  to  work 
upon  : most  remarkable  results  may  be  seen 
in  the  better  American  magazines. 

There  are  many  qualities  in  a drawing 
which  that  senseless  machine,  the  camera, 
will  never  reproduce.  There  are  also  a few 
points  which  it  is  very  difficult  (in  tone  work) 
for  an  engraver  to  render,  but  they  may  both 
combine  and  obtain  most  interesting  effects. 

For  instance,  it  is  very  difficult  to  give  in 
a wood  engraving  the  look  of  paint  on 
canvas,  without  losing  much  of  the  picture 
itself,  for  if  the  wood  engraver  begins  to  try 
to  imitate  texture  he  not  infrequently  loses 
the  subject.  The  mechanical  process  seems 
to  do  this  very  easily,  especially  if  the 
brush  marks  on  the  canvas  are  at  all  promi- 


THE  MAKING  OF  WASH  DR  A WINGS.  89 

nent.  But  the  delicacy  is  frequently  lost ; so, 
too,  are  the  strong  blacks,  though  a good 
wood  engraver  can  remedy  these  defects  by 
treating  the  metal  block  just  as  though  it 
was  wood,  engraving  on  it,  cutting  out,  save 
where  it  is  right,  all  the  mechanical  look. 
But  two  factors  are  necessary,  first  a good 
engraver,  and,  second,  a publisher  who  is 
willing  to  pay  for  this  engraving,  which  is 
expensive.  The  majority  of  publishers  will 
not  do  so,  though  they  will  pay  for  the 
work  of  a good  or  notorious  author.  They 
will  employ  a feeble  artist,  a poor  engraver, 
and  a cheap  printer,  and  talk  of  how  much 
better  the  work  was  done  thirty  years  ago. 
Of  course  it  was  ; it  was  decently  drawn  and 
mostly  badly  engraved,  vilely  printed,  but  well 
paid  for  ; now  the  photograph  is  the  standard 
and  the  results  are  all  about  us  ; therefore 
you  must  think  of  the  results.  So  make  broad 
simple  masses,  keep  your  work  as  flat  as  you 


90 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


can,  remembering  that  all  blacks  will  have 
the  little  white  dots  of  the  screen  more  or 
less  showing  through  them — these  can  be 
kept  out  by  the  engraver,  but  they  certainly 
will  appear  in  the  cheapest  work  ; remember- 
ing that  all  delicate  grey  tones  will  be  eaten 
up  by  the  screen,  therefore  don’t  put  them 
in  if  you  can  help  it ; and,  finally,  that  unless 
whites  are  cut  out  they  will  never  appear, 
instead  you  will  have  a dotted  grey  effect. 

In  the  very. near  future  many  of  these 
imperfections  will  disappear,  for  you  must 
remember  that  it  is  scarcely  ten  years  since 
half  tone  began  to  be  used  at  all.  But  look, 
whenever  you  see  them — and  they  are  every- 
where— at  the  reproductions  of  half-tone 
work  ; try  and  study  out  how  the  artist  got 
his  effect  ; go  to  the  art  editor  who  published 
the  drawing  and  ask  to  see  the  original. 
Talk  with  artists  who  do  good  work  in  black 
and  white  ; they  are  mostly  human,  intelligent, 


THE  MAKING  OF  WASH  BE  A WINGS.  91 

and  willing  to  help  and  advise  you.  Go  to 
the  engravers’  shops  and  find  out  what  the 
engraver  will  tell  you,  and  to  printing  offices 
and  see  your  work  on  the  press. 

I have  already  spoken  of  the  reproduc- 
tions of  line  drawings  by  the  half-tone  pro- 
cess. One  is  sometimes  tempted  to  wish  that 
all  line  work  could  be  reproduced  by  half 
tone  and  tone  work  could  be  reproduced  by 
line,  because  if  the  line  is  delicate  or  the 
drawing  is  thin,  the  screen  over  it  gives  a 
tint  which  is  pleasing,  at  times  makes  it  look 
like  an  etching  somewhat,  especially  if  the 
tint  be  judiciously  cut  out.  You  might 
look  at  some  of  C.  D.  Gibson’s  work,  where 
very  great  delicacy  has  been  obtained  in 
this  way.  Engravers  are  now  endeavouring 
to  get  the  tint  just  where  it  is  wanted,  and 
I have  no  doubt  they  will  succeed.  When 
they  do,  photo-engraving  by  the  half-tone 
process  will  be  greatly  improved. 


92 


THE  ILLUSTRA  TIOX  OF  BOOKS. 


Finally,  study  the  requirements  of  the 
process  not  only  as  artists,  but  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  engraver  ; go  down  to 
his  shop  and  find  out  how  the  work  is 
done ; make  him  show  and  tell  you  ; insist 
on  seeing  proofs  of  your  drawings — good 
proofs,  too  ; make  corrections  on  them,  first 
learning  what  corrections  can  be  made.  You 

o 

cannot  have  blacks  put  in  your  engravings 
if  they  did  not  exist  in  the  drawings,  and, 
roughly  speaking,  you  can  only  tone  down, 
not  strengthen  any  engraving  ; but  you  will 
find,  save  in  cases  of  blacks,  it  is  only  toning 
down  that  the  engraving  wants,  thinning  and 
greying  of  lines. 

All  this,  I have  no  doubt,  is  very  dry  and 
uninteresting  and  tedious,  but  unless  you  get 
these  things  into  your  heads  in  the  beginning, 
your  drawings  will  not  photograph  well,  en- 
grave well,  or  print  well  ; and  if  they  don’t, 
you  will  not  get  any  illustration  to  do,  and 
you  may  have  yourselves  to  blame  for  it 


LECTURE  VI. 


REPRODUCTION  OF  DRAWINGS  BY  WOOD 

ENGRA  VING. 

OOD  engraving,  as  a fine  art,  has 


been  virtually  invented,  developed, 
brought  to  apparent  perfection,  and  yet  ceased 
to  exist,  temporarily,  almost,  as  a trade,  in 
this  century. 

A wood  engraving  is  an  engraving  made 
with  a graver,  upon  a cross  section  of  box- 
wood, that  is  upon  the  end,  and  not  the  side, 
of  a plank,  in  relief.  As  in  the  case  of 
mechanical  engraving,  all  the  wood,  except- 
ing that  underneath  the  design  upon  the 
block,  is  cut  away,  and  the  picture  remains 


93 


94 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


alone  in  relief,  raised  upon  the  surface  of  the 
block  of  the  same  height  as  the  type  ; thus 
the  block  may  be  placed  on  the  press  and 
printed  with  the  type. 

The  first  great  wood  engraver  was  Thos. 
Bewick,  and  he,  unlike  many  of  his  followers 
to-day,  was  an  artist,  and  mostly  made  his 
own  drawings  on  the  block  and  cut  them  as 
he  wished.  He  saw  that  wood  engraving 
was  a substitute  for  the  slower,  more  tedious, 
and  more  expensive  method  of  steel  engrav- 
ing ; that,  most  important,  many  of  the 
qualities  of  steel  could  be  imitated  in  wood, 
as  the  same  tools  were  used ; that  it  could  be 
printed  with  type ; and,  save  that  the  richness 
of  colour  could  not  be  retained,  that  it  had 
most  of  the  advantages  of  metal  and  few  ot 
its  disadvantages,  and  was  vastly  cheaper. 
From  the  first,  the  imitation  of  steel  was 
considered  the  proper  aim,  and  though  early 
in  this  century  Stothard  drew  with  a pen 


I 


REPRODUCTION  BY  WOOD  ENGRAVING . 95 

upon  the  block,  and  his  designs  were  fac- 
similed in  the  wood  by  Clennell,  the  prevail- 
ing fashion  was  the  imitation  of  steel 
engraving,  even  by  Bewick  himself.  Many 
of  his  lines  are  exactly  those  used  by  the 
steel  engravers.  By  the  middle  of  the 
century  steel  engraving  virtually  disappeared, 

4 

its  practitioners  being  unable  to  compete  with 
wood  engravers.  There  have  been  but  few 
original  engravers  in  this  form  of  art,  and 
though  the  work  of  some  of  the  steel 
engravers  who  reproduced  Turner  and 
Roberts,  Wilkie  and  Landseer,  is  marvel- 
lous, the  art  is  almost  dead  at  present. 
Cheapness  has  killed  it.  Wood  engraving 
also  killed  lithography — a lithograph  cannot 
be  printed  with  type — and  consequently  the 
wood  engraver  became  a most  important 
person.  He  ran  a shop  with  many  assist- 
ants ; he  commissioned  artists  to  make  draw- 
ings for  his  assistants  to  engrave,  he  dictated 


96 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


the  way  in  which  these  drawings  were  to  be 

\ 

done,  the  way  in  which  the  lines  were  to  be 
drawn  and  washes  made,  so  that  they  could 
be  cut  most  easily.  He  commissioned 
writers  to  work  up  or  down  to  the  artists  ; 
he  printed  the  books  and  sold  them  to  the 
publishers,  who  were  content  to  put  their 
names  on  the  title  pages.  And  by  this 
method  much  good  and  more  bad  work 
was  accomplished,  but  the  engraver  finally 
became  supreme,  autocratic,  dictatorial,  in- 
sufferable ; and  then  he  vanished,  as  a shop. 
Process  stepped  in,  in  its  turn,  on  account  of 
its  cheapness  ; and  to-day,  unless  the  engraver 
is  an  artist,  he  is  but  the  slave  of  the  pro- 
cess man,  a hard  fate — but  his  own.  Before 
the  introduction  of  photography,  artists  had 
to  make  their  designs  for  the  wood  engraver 
the  size  they  were  wanted  upon  the  block  of 
wood,  if  portraits  of  places,  reverse  them,  in 
pen,  brush,  pencil,  or  wash  ; the  engraver  cut 


REPRODUCTION  BY  WOOD  ENGRAVING.  97 
around  and  through  these  designs,  making 

o o 7 o 

a translation  of  them  in  relief  on  the  block 
which  could  be  printed  from.  But  the 
drawing-  had  disappeared,  and  the  artist 
had  nothing  but  the  engraving  to  show  for 

o o o 

it,  hence  endless  difficulties  arose ; good 

artists  hated  to  have  their  drawings  cut  to 
pieces  ; good  engravers  hated  to  have  their 
work  criticised  unfavourably  ; also,  drawing 
of  a small  size,  and  in  reverse  on  the  block 
was  difficult  to  learn,  and  only  a mechani- 
cal craft  of  no  artistic  advantage  when 
learned.  Therefore,  as  soon  as  it  was 

possible  to  escape  from  the  drudgery,  to 
draw  of  any  size  on  paper  and  have  that 
drawing  photographed  on  to  a sensitised 
wood  block,  of  the  size  it  was  wanted,  in 
reverse,  all  artists  took  to  it.  And  a new 
school  of  engravers  arose,  men  who  tried 
to  invent  new  methods  of  engraving  so  that 

they  could  express  the  medium,  as  well  as 

8 


98 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


the  subject,  in  which  a picture  was  produced. 
True  from  Stothard  onward,  through  Meis- 
sonier  and  Menzel,  engravers  had  tried  to 
render  pen  and  pencil  drawings  in  line  on 
wood;  now  everything  began  to  be  attempted, 
charcoal,  etchings,  steel,  water  colours,  litho- 
graphs, oils.  All  the  imperfections,  acci- 
dents, and  blemishes  were  preserved,  even 
if  the  picture  disappeared.  But  a number  of 
most  distinguished  artist  wood  engravers 
appeared,  especially  in  America,  though  few 
of  them  learned  their  trade  in  that  country. 
But  they  received  more  encouragement, 
better  pay,  better  printing,  and  better  artists 
worked  for  them.  And  so  the  school  of 
American  wood  engravers,  many  of  whom 
are  not  Americans,  was  born. 

Now  how  is  the  modern  work  done? 
The  artist’s  picture  in  any  medium,  of  any 
size,  is  given  to  the  photographer,  who 
copies  and  reverses  it,  prints  it  on  the 


REPRODUCTION  BY  WOOD  ENGRAVING.  99 

block  of  wood  which  has  been  sensitised 
for  that  purpose.  The  print  is  usually  not 
very  good,  that  is,  it  is  darker,  with  many 
of  the  qualities  of  the  drawing  lost ; but  it 
serves  only  as  a guide  or  a tracing  for  the 
engraver,  who  takes  his  tools,  and  with 
the  drawing  behind  him,  reflected  in  a 
mirror  to  reverse  it,  proceeds  to  cut  the 
photograph  of  the  drawing  into  relief,  at 
the  same  time  trying  to  preserve  the  look 
of  the  canvas,  paper,  or  metal  on  which 
it  was  made,  and  the  feeling  of  the  colour, 
wash,  or  paint  with  which  it  was  executed. 
All  this  is  most  difficult,  but  a most  artistic 
result  may  be  obtained,  and  one  has  but 
to  refer  to  the  magazines  of  America  and 
some  of  the  weekly  papers  of  Germany, 
France,  and  Spain,  for  a proof  of  it. 

Here,  though  much  good  wood  engrav- 
ing has  been  printed,  outside  the  offices 
of  Messrs.  Macmillan,  Cassell  and  Co., 


IOO 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


and  the  Graphic , it  has  of  late  years  been 
mostly  in  the  form  of  copies,  electrotypes, 
cliches  from  foreign  blocks  which  are  sup- 
plied by  their  makers,  all  over  the  world, 
at  a very  low  price,  because  they  are  not 
reserved  for  any  one  paper  or  book.  And 
when  you  begin  to  see  a man’s  painting, 
or  drawing,  or  engraving  in  every  paper, 
you  begin  to  tire  of  him  and  his  work. 
The  editors  of  papers  which  publish  cliches 
seem  to  be  the  only  people  who  like  the 
multiplication  and  cheapening  of  art,  but 
then  there  is  no  accounting  for  their  tastes. 

o 

The  tools  and  appliances  for  making  wood 
engravings  are  simple  enough,  but  to  engrave 
anything  but  facsimile  work,  or  your  own 
designs,  will  necessitate  your  going  through 
considerable  practical  training  ; probably  some 
years  of  apprenticeship. 

To  cut  line  drawings  on  the  wood,  or  to 
cut  designs  in  large  simple  masses,  you  do 


REPRODUCTION  BY  WOOD  ENGRA  VING.  ioi 

not  require  so  much  practice.  All  the  tools 
you  need  are  different  sized  gravers  and 
gouges,  a small  chisel  to  cut  large  spaces, 
an  engraver’s  rest  for  the  block,  so  that  it 
can  be  turned  freely  and  easily  about, 
and  a whetstone  to  sharpen  your  tools. 

Lamps  and  globes  for  water,  shades  for 
your  eyes,  you  will  scarcely  need,  but  a 
magnifying  glass,  something  like  that  which 
watchmakers  use,  may  be  useful.  With  these 
simple  tools  and  some  box- wood — they  can 
all  be  bought  in  East  Harding  Street  or  at 
any  colour  maker’s — you  have  the  necessary 
appliances. 

If  you  draw  on  the  block,  a slight  wash 
of  Chinese  white  will  help  to  make  it  work 
easily.  Draw  with  a brush  or  pencil ; or  if 
in  wash,  without  body  colour,  as  that  will 
chip  off*.  You  have  only  to  remember  that 
the  block,  either  plain  or  with  the  drawing 
on  it,  would  print  perfectly  black,  and  that 


102 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


every  line  you  make  with  the  graver  in  the 
surface  of  it,  will  print  white.  Therefore,  as 
I have  said,  to  get  an  outline  engraving,  you 
simply  cut  away  everything  but  the  drawing, 
which  is  left  in  relief  on  the  surface  of  the 
block,  and  which  alone  prints,  the  rest  of  it 
being  cut  away.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
engrave  the  surface  very  deeply,  only  so 
much  that  neither  the  ink  nor  the  paper  will 
touch  in  the  hollows  between  the  lines  or 
masses.  Mistakes  are  not  easy  to  remedy, 
except  by  making  a hole  in  the  block  and 
inserting  a plug  of  wood,  and  then  en- 
graving that  afresh. 

The  art  of  engraving  in  facsimile , that 
is,  of  engraving  around  lines  made  with 
pen,  or  brush,  or  pencil,  is  comparatively 
easy,  it  only  requires  much  training  and 
a steady  hand.  But  the  ability  to  trans- 
late a work  in  colour  into  black  and 
white,  on  a wood  block,  so  that  it  shall 


REPRODUCTION  BY  WOOD  ENGRAVING.  103 

give  a good  idea  of  the  original,  is  far 
more  difficult.  To  do  it  well,  the  en- 
graver must  not  only  have  the  knowledge 
of  the  technical  requirements  of  his  craft 
at  his  finger  ends,  only  to  be  gained  after 
years  of  apprenticeship,  but  he  must  be  a 
trained  artist  as  well.  If  he  wishes  to  get 
the  best  results,  he  must  have  the  original 
before  him,  he  must  understand  it  and 
appreciate  it.  And  finally,  he  must  have 
the  technical  skill  to  engrave  it.  Even 
then,  most  likely,  the  artist  will  not  like 
the  block.  It  is  a difficult  art,  a thankless 
art,  save  in  the  rarest  cases . one  which 
requires  years  of  special  training,  and  at 
present  in  this  country,  no  matter  how 
great  an  artist  one  is,  there  is  very  little 
chance  to  practise  it.  Work  of  this  sort 
you  cannot  expect  to  be  able  to  do  without 
years  of  training ; if  you  care  for  it  you 
must  apprentice  yourself  to  a wood  engraver. 


104 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


Still  there  are  forms  of  wood  engraving 
which  you  may  take  up,  from  the  most 
primitive  to  the  most  complicated,  and  you 
may  carry  out  the  work  from  the  designing 
of  it  to  the  printing  of  it  yourselves,  or,  you 
may  draw  on  the  block  and  cut  away,  as 
in  engravings  by  the  late  R.  L.  Stevenson 
(or  were  they  done  by  Lloyd  Osbourne  or 
some  other  ghost  ?),  and  possibly  you  will 
have  an  experience  like  this  : — 

“A  blemish  in  the  cut  appears, 

Alas,  it  cost  both  blood  and  tears. 

The  glancing  graver  swerved  aside, 

Fast  flowed  the  artist’s  vital  tide, 

And  now  the  apologetic  bard 
Demands  indulgence  for  his  pard 

Or  I imagine  without  much  trouble  you 
might  invent  something  in  the  style  of 
Valloton,  a Frenchman,  who  is  resurrecting 
wood  cutting  in  a manner  of  his  own,  while 
carrying  on  the  traditions  of  the  old  men.  I 
hope  you  may  be  able  to  get  as  much  life 


REPRODUCTION  BY  WOOD  ENGRAVING.  105 

and  go  in  it  as  he  has.  Make  your  drawing 
on  the  wood,  or  on  paper,  have  it  photo- 
graphed on  the  wood  in  the  latter  case, 
and  cut  around  the  lines,  leaving  only  the 
drawing.  The  greatest  difficulty  is  with  fine 
lines,  and  you  see  how  cleverly  Valloton 
has  avoided  making  them.  Or,  like  Lepere, 
another  French  artist — he  would  be  a man 
to  study  with — do  big,  bold,  effective  things  ; 
or  again  you  might  attempt,  as  he  does, 
colour  work  on  wood,  like  that  done  by 
the  Japanese,  drawing  it,  engraving  it,  and 
printing  it  all  yourselves. 

Or,  take  up  drawing  and  engraving 
in  the  manner  of  Caldecott,  Crane,  or 
Kate  Greenaway,  when  they  were  re- 
produced and  printed  by  Edmund  Evans. 

Process  is  fighting  for  colour  too,  but 
wood,  at  least  in  proofs,  and  that  is  all 
you  would  care  for,  gives  some  qualities 
far  beyond  process. 


io6 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OE  BOOKS . 


In  colour  printing  from  wood  blocks  as 
many  blocks  must  be  made  as  there  are 
colours,  and  there  must  be  as  many 
separate  printings  made  from  these  blocks 
as  there  are  colours  in  the  printed  picture. 
There  must  also  be  an  outline  block  called 
the  key  block.  Usually  in  European 
colour  printing,  whether  from  wood  blocks, 
or  by  lithography,  or  even  process,  the 
colours  are  printed  on  top  of  each  other; 
for  example,  a blue  is  printed  over  a 
yellow  to  get  green,  and  at  times  several 
colours  are  superimposed,  with  the  result 
that  colour  is  lost  and  mud  obtained.  The 
Japanese  have  shown  us  how  to  make 
colour  prints,  however,  and  their  method 
is  now  adopted  by  all  intelligent  colour 
printers.  It  consists  in  making  the  right 
colour  before  it  is  put  on  the  block,  and 
in  placing  the  colours  side  by  side  like  a 
mosaic.  The  work  is  done  somewhat  in 


REPRODUCTION  BY  WOOD  ENGRA  VING.  107 

this  way  ; the  artist  makes  his  drawing, 
several  tracings  (as  many  as  there  are 
colours)  are  made  from  it,  and  one  extra 
tracing  must  be  made  of  the  outline  only. 
Or  rather  the  outline  alone  is  cut  on  the 
block,  other  blocks  are  then  made  for  each 
colour,  or  the  parts  cut  out  of  the  same 
block  ; one  will  contain  all  the  red,  another 
all  the  blue,  a third  the  yellow,  and  so  on. 
They  must  be  very  accurately  cut,  so  as  to 
fit  together  and  print  truly,  and  you  can 
see  from  Japanese  prints  how  wonderfully 
well  the  work  is  done.  Of  course  the 
editions  from  such  blocks  are  very  limited, 
and  on  this  account,  like  etchings,  often 
vary,  the  printers  having  tried  experiments 
in  colour.  The  grain  of  the  wood  is  taken 
advantage  of  in  printing,  as  it  often  gives 
a lovely  pattern  ; a good  printer  will  wash 
in  gradated  skies  with  the  backgrounds, 
and  no  matter  how  wonderfully  they  are 


io8 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


worked,  if  of  the  same  colour,  are  printed 
usually  from  the  same  block.  The 
Japanese,  I believe,  use  water-colours ; 
certainly  the  French  and  English,  who 
have  tried  to  imitate  them,  do,  putting  the 
colour,  mixed  with  a little  size  or  gum,  on 
the  face  of  the  block  with  a sponge ; in 
fact  they  are  printed  water-colours.  Several 
Frenchmen  have  obtained  in  this  way 
most  notable  results.  Very  similar  was 
the  fashion  of  colour  printing  called  chiaros- 
curo, used  in  the  early  part  of  the  century. 
The  trouble  with  this  was  that  the  oil 
with  which  the  inks  were  mixed,  either 
ran,  or  spoiled  the  pages,  or  did  not  dry 
well.  Drawings  on  grey  paper  in  chalk 
can  be  wonderfully  imitated  in  this  way, 
and  there  are  methods  of  using  steel  and 
copper  plates,  bitten  into  relief  to  get  out- 

i 

lines  or  tints,  which  were  also  employed. 
To-day  in  the  printing  of  wood  engravings 


REPRODUCTION  BY  WOOD  ENGRAVING . 109 

and  process  blocks  by  steam,  at  many 
thousands  an  hour,  the  same  system  of 
colour  printing,  by  placing  the  colours  side 
by  side,  is  being  attempted,  for  it  is  im- 
possible to  obtain  fine  tone  or  rich  effect 
by  placing  one  colour  on  top  of  another, 
even  in  slow  printing  by  hand,  while  it  is 
absurd  to  attempt  it  rapidly  by  steam.  In 
the  most  successful  attempts  yet  made, 
those  of  the  Le  Quotidien  Illustre  and  Le 
Rire , Paris  papers,  colour  printing  from 
process  blocks  has  been  most  successfully 
done,  and  I do  not  doubt  that  in  a very 
few  years  colour  printing  in  magazines  and 
newspapers  will  be  very  general. 

As  I have  said,  all  intelligent  printers 
have  now  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
simple  flat  colours,  put  on  side  by  side, 
will  alone  give  good  artistic  results  ; they 
have  only  learned  this,  however,  after 
going  quite  to  the  other  extreme : after 


I TO 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


trying  to  get  pure  colour  and  rich  effects 
by  using  the  three  primary  colours  on  top 
of  each  other,  they  obtained  but  crudeness, 
vulgarity,  and  mud. 

Photography  and  chemistry  are  useful 
in  art,  but  art  cannot  be  created  by  these 
means.  It  may  be  that  some  one,  some 
day,  will  be  able  to  photograph  a picture 

in  colour,  but  there  is  as  yet  no  evidence 
of  it. 

Wood  engravings  may  also  be  made  by 
scraping  or  lowering  the  fronts  or  backs 
of  blocks,  and  rich,  soft,  fat  effects 
can  be  produced.  Very  little  has  been 
done,  I think,  with  these  lowered  blocks, 
some  remarkable  examples  of  which  can 
be  seen  in  Chatto  and  Jackson’s  “ History 
of  Wood  Engraving.” 

Photography  has  aided  the  artist  very 
much  in  wood  engraving  (though  most 
engravers  say  it  has  not),  and  especially 


REPRODUCTION  B Y WOOD  ENGRA  VING.  1 1 1 


in  colour  printing  it  can  be  made  great 
use  of ; as,  instead  of  tracing  a design  on 
to  several  blocks,  it  can  be  photographed, 
thus  ensuring  accuracy — though  the  Japanese 
obtained  this  without  any  photographic  aids 
— and  saving  much  time. 

Still,  that  is  about  as  far  as  it  goes  at 
present,  and  photography  will  never  super- 
sede art,  though  it  is  engaged  in  a famous 
struggle  with  artlessness. 


» 


LECTURE  VII. 

LITHOGRAPHY . 

ITHOGRAPHY,  for  some  time  the 


rival  of  metal  engraving  and  even  for 
a time  of  wood,  was  invented  at  the  end  of 
the  last  century,  and,  as  its  name  implies,  is 
the  art  of  drawing  or  writing  upon  stone. 
Briefly,  a peculiar  grained  stone,  found  in 
Germany,  may  be  drawn  upon  with  greasy 
chalk  or  ink ; afterward  it  is  slightly  etched, 
only  washed  really,  with  weak  nitric  acid  and 
water  to  fix  the  drawing-  and  somewhat 
reduce  the  surface  of  the  stone  ; if  the  stone 
be  now  covered  with  gum,  allowed  to  dry, 


112 


LITHOGRAPHY. 


”3 


and  then  inked,  the  ink  adheres  only  to  the 
drawing ; and  if  a sheet  of  paper  is  placed 
on  it,  and  the  whole  passed  through  a press, 
a print,  or  rather  the  drawing  in  ink,  will 
come  off  on  the  paper.  This  is  roughly  the 
art  of  lithography. 

The  most  important  consideration  for  you, 
however,  is  the  making  of  the  drawing. 
This  may  be  done  in  one  of  two  ways : 
either  upon  the  stone  itself,  or  upon  transfer 
paper  specially  coated,  so  that  the  entire 
drawing  is  transferred  from  the  paper  on 
which  it  is  drawn,  by  mechanical  means,  to 
the  stone,  and  not  merely  a print  from  the 
original  drawing.  For  many  reasons  it  would 
probably  be  best  to  draw  upon  the  stone 
itself  always ; because,  first  and  above  all, 
the  less  intervention — even  mechanical  inter- 
vention— there  is  between  the  artist  and  his 
work,  the  better ; and  in  many  cases  it  is  not 
possible  to  get  good  results  unless  the  artist 


9 


1 14  THE  JLLUSTRA  T10N  OF  BOOKS. 

works  on  the  stone.  But  if  one  has  to  make 
a large  drawing  out  of  doors,  it  is  obviously 
impossible  to  carry  about  a big  and  heavy 
stone  with  one;  therefore  lithographic  trans- 
fer paper  must  be  used  if  the  work  is  to  be 
done  from  nature. 

Before  this  paper  was  perfected  (it  is  very 
good  now,  and  can  be  obtained  from  Hughes 
& Kimber  of  West  Harding  Street,  and 
Corneillisons’  of  Long  Acre),  the  artist  either 
copied  his  sketches,  studies,  or  pictures  him- 
self, on  the  stone,  if  he  understood  litho- 
graphy ; or  else  his  drawings  were  copied  for 
him  by  some  other  artists  who  were  trained 
lithographers.  One  most  notable  example  of 
this  is  to  be  found  in  J.  F.  Lewis’s  “ Al- 
hambra.” The  originals  by  Lewis  were 
redrawn  on  the  stone  by  J.  D.  Harding,  J. 
Lane,  and  W.  Ganci,  as  well  as  by  Lewis 

himself ; inevitably  some  of  these  men’s 

* 

individuality  was  apparent,  and  even  in  the 


LITHOGRAPHY. 


115 

case  of  Lewis,  much  must  have  been  lost  by 
copying  his  own  designs  ; and  if  original 
work  is  given  to  professional  lithographers, 
in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  one  hundred  all 
the  real  character  is  taken  out  of  it.  To-day, 
however,  one  may  draw  upon  transfer  paper, 
being  careful  only  not  to  touch  it  with  one’s 
fingers,  either  in  lithographic  chalk  or  litho- 
graphic ink,  which  is  only  the  chalk  rubbed 
down  and  put  on  with  a pen  or  brush,  on 
this  paper,  which  should  be  fastened  down 
like  an  oil  sketch,  in  a box  having  a cover, 
by  drawing  pins.  Take  the  drawing  to  the 
printer ; he  will  put  it  on  the  stone  and 
print  it  for  you  far  better  than  you  can 
do  it  yourself ; still  this  is  rather  expensive, 
as  the  transferring  of  the  drawing  to  the 
stone  and  pulling  a few  proofs  will  cost  you 
about  a guinea.  But  if  your  design  can  be 
drawn  in  your  own  studio,  or  at  the  litho- 
graphers, on  the  stone,  it  is  not  only  much 


1 16  THE  ILLUSTRA  TION  OF  BOOKS. 

* 

simpler,  but  the  result  may  be  better,  and 
you  can  employ  more  varied  , methods  of 
work.  For  example,  you  may  draw  with 
the  lithographic  crayon  — Lemercier’s  are 
the  best ; get  them  at  Lechertier  & Barbe’s 
— just  as  you  would  with  ordinary  chalk  or 
crayon.  For  if  the  stone  is  grained  like 
paper,  the  design,  if  well  printed,  should  look 
almost  exactly  like  a drawing  on  paper.  On 
a smooth  or  ungrained  stone  you  may  draw 
or  write  with  pen  or  brush  and  lithographic 
ink,  which  is  only  the  crayon  rubbed  down 
with  gum  arabic,  or  ammonia  and  water,  as 

you  would  rub  down  Indian  ink,  only  you 

✓ 

must  heat  the  saucer  in  which  you  are  rub- 
bing it,  a little.  When  you  have  done  this, 
use  Gillott’s  lithographic  pens,  putting  the  ink 
on  the  pen  with  a brush,  or  use  a trimmed 
sable  brush  brought  to  a fine  point ; you 
must  make  your  lines  carefully,  and  get  your 
ink  of  the  right  consistency,  otherwise  it 


LITHOGRAPHY . 


ii  7 

tends  to  blot  and  spread  or  smear.  Again, 
you  may  mix  more  of  the  medium  with  the 
rubbed-down  crayon.  I should  say  it  rubs, 
when  warm,  without  water  ; this  medium 
may  be  obtained  ready  mixed  from  Way  & 
Sons,  Wellington  Street,  Strand  ; paint  with 
it  as  you  would  in  water  colours,  adding 
more  of  the  medium  or  more  ink  as  you  wish 
little  or  much  colour.  I have  tried  only  a 
couple  of  experiments  in  this  way,  and  they 
were  both  complete  failures.  The  trouble  I 
found  was  this  : in  making  light  tones,  the 
moment  the  brush  charged  with  colour 
touches  the  stone,  the  stone  itself  turns 
much  darker  than  the  colour  you  are  put- 
ting on  it  ; and  as  it  dries  out  very  slowly, 
the  making  of  a wash  drawing  is  a most 
tedious  process,  unless  one  has  had  enough 
experience  of  the  work  to  know  just  the 
effect  of  the  finished  drawing,  or  rather  just 
the  effect  of  the  wash  applied,  which  cannot 


1 1 S THE  ILL  US  TEA  TION  OF  BOOKS . 

be  seen  in  its  proper  tone,  while  working 
on  the  stone,  since  the  appearance  the  stone 
presents  so  long  as  it  is  wet  is  absolutely 
different  to  what  it  will  look  like  when  dry, 

J 1 

and  it  is  almost  impossible  to  work  over 
washes,  because  the  colour  floats  off  if  they 
are  gone  over  again,  or  at  least  smudges 
and  smears  ; still,  corrections  and  additions 
can  be  made  with  the  crayon  point,  and  the 
whole  design  brought  pretty  well  together. 
The  best  work  in  wash  has  been  done  by 
Lunois,  a Frenchman.  Corrections  are  at 
all  times  difficult  to  make  in  lithographs,  the 
error  having  to  be  scratched  out  and  the 
stone  repaired  in  that  spot,  before  the  new 
work  can  be  put  in  again. 

Stump  drawings  may  be  made  by  getting 
the  crayon  in  powder  and  smearing  it  on  the 
stone  in  masses  with  a rag.  Effects  can  be 
obtained  by  removing  too  much  colour  with 
ordinary  scrapers  and  putting  in  modelling 


LITHOGRAPHY . 


119 

with  stumps  and  the  point  of  the  crayon  ; 
or  all  three  of  the  methods  I have  mentioned 
may  be  combined,  as  they  often  are,  on  the 

same  stone,  notably  in  the  work  of  Hervier. 

% 

Tints  may  be  obtained  by  stippling  and 
splatter  work,  as  in  pen  drawings.  There  is 
a machine  called  an  air  brush,  used  by 
lithographers  for  this  purpose,  but  the  in- 
troduction of  mechanical  dodges  has  done 
much  to  harm  lithography. 

Zinc  may  be  grained  and  drawn  upon  in 
the  same  way  ; why  this  metal  is  not  more 
generally  used,  I do  not  know,  for  it  is  much 
lighter,  more  portable,  and  can  be  easily 
mounted  on  a plain  stone  to  print  from. 

Until  lately  it  was  maintained  that  only 
what  was  drawn  on  stone  could  be  eot  off 
it  in  a print.  But  Mr.  Goulding,  the  etching 
printer,  who  has  been  making  a series  of  ex- 
' periments,  says  he  can  get  almost  as  much 
variety  of  effect,  by  wiping  the  surface  of 


120 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


the  stone  carefully,  in  a small  number  of 
prints,  as  he  can  from  a copper  plate  (see 
Lecture  on  the  printing  of  Etchings).  Still, 
for  you,  the  process  ordinarily  will  end  with 
the  drawing.  Even  the  transferring  is  only 
to  be  successfully  done  by  skilled  workmen, 
and  until  you  can  print  an  etching  decently, 
it  would  be  scarcely  worth  while  to  try  a 
lithograph. 

Considering  that  the  process  is  perfectly 
autographic,  that  the  materials  are  few  and 
cheap,  it  is  strange  that  it  is  so  little  em- 
ployed at  present.  But  a very  serious 
attempt  is  being  made  to  revive  it,  and  as 
an  artist  like  Mr.  Whistler  is  the  leader  and 
initiator,  I believe  it  will  be  successful. 

Colour  printing  by  lithography,  though 
very  complicated,  might  be  tried  by  you ; 
as  many  stones  must  be  prepared  for 
transferring  the  design,  made  either  on 
paper  or  stone,  from  the  paper  to  stone, 


LITHOGRAPHY. 


1 2 1 


or  from  one  stone  to  another,  as  there 

$ 

are  colours,  and  only  that  part  of  the  design 
which  is  of  one  colour  must  appear  on  one 
stone  ; if  you  try  to  get  colour  prints 
in  the  usual  fashion  by  printing  one  colour 
over  the  other,  you  will  obtain  the  usual 
commercial  muddling  lithographic  appear- 
ance. But  if  you  mix  your  own  colours  for 
the  lithographer,  and  have  the  colours  placed 
side  by  side,  in  flat  masses  like  the  Japanese 
block  prints  (see  Wood  Engraving  Lecture), 
you  should  get  good  results. 

There  are  endless  other  processes  and 
methods  of  work,  but  they  are  all  more  or 
less  complicated,  and  require  special  training 
and  special  tools,  and  even  machinery,  and 
one  who  wishes  to  pursue  the  subject  further 
must  go  to  a lithographer  and  learn  the 
trade. 

But  in  order  to  get  artistic  effects  only, 
one  has  but  to  draw  or  paint  on  paper  or 


I 22 


THE  ILLUSTRA  TION  OF  BOOKS. 


stone  as  one  would  ordinarily.  The  means 
are  most  simple,  and  the  results  should  be 
most  interesting. 


LECTURE  VIII. 


ETCHING. 

T N all  the  various  methods  of  making  illus- 
^ trations  to  which  I have  so  far  called 
your  attention,  it  was  necessary  that  some 
part  of  the  work  should  be  done  by  a 
specially  trained  craftsman,  at  least  if  any 
practical  and  commercial  result  was  desired. 

Now  in  etching,  the  more  you  yourselves 
do  and  the  less  any  one  else  does,  the  better 
should  be  the  result. 

An  etching  is,  in  its  narrowest  sense,  a print 
from  a metal  plate  into  which  a design  has 
been  bitten  or  eaten  by  acid  ; again,  in  most 
of  the  other  methods,  the  printing  was  from 
relief  blocks  like  type,  and  therefore  those 


123 


124 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


illustrations  could  be  printed  with  type.  Now 
we  have  to  consider  another  sort  of  work, 
namely,  intaglio,  or  incised,  or  sunken  work 
not  printed  from  the  surface,  but  from  lines 
cut  below  it,  and  therefore  unavailable  for 
letterpress  printing.  Of  course  it  would  be 
easy  to  make  a relief  block  in  metal,  or  an 
incised  block  of  wood,  to  reverse  the  treat- 
ment in  printing,  but  it  would  not  be  natural 

i 

or  right. 

The  whole  difference  is  this : if  a wood 
block  has  a line  cut  in  the  surface  and  the 
whole  face  is  inked  with  a roller,  the  line  will 
print  white  and  the  rest  of  the  block  black. 
If  the  etching  plate  is  inked  and  cleaned  off, 
as  is  always  done,  it  will  print  white  ; if  a 
line  is  cut  in  it,  the  ink  will  remain  in  that 
and  produce  a black  line.  Of  course  they 
must  be  printed  in  appropriate  presses. 

In  its  broadest  sense  an  etching  may  be 
produced  in  any  one  of  a number  of  ways, 


ETCHING. 


125 


by  the  artist,  on  a metal  plate  which  may  be 
printed  from. 

It  is  never  a process  or  mechanical  en- 
graving, and  never  was  and  never  will  be, 
and  the  attempt  to  palm  off  mechanical 
blocks  or  plates  is  a swindle  and  a humbug. 

Etchings  are  produced  in  the  following 
manner  ; at  least  this  is  the  best  and  simplest 
method. 

* 

A plate  of  highly  polished  copper,  zinc,  or 
even  steel,  iron,  or  aluminium  is  obtained 
from  the  makers,  William  Longman,  of 
Johnson’s  Court,  Fleet  Street,  or  from 
Messrs.  Hughes  & Kimber,  West  Harding 
Street,  Fetter  Lane,  or  Messrs.  Roberson, 
99,  Long  Acre.  Copper,  however,  is  the 
best  and  almost  universally  used.  This 
should  be  carefully  cleaned  with  a soft  rag 
and  whiting  ; then  it  should  be  gripped  by  a 
vice  with  a wooden  handle,  in  one  corner, 
care  being  taken  to  put  a piece  of  soft  paper 


126 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


between  the  vice  and  the  plate  to  keep  the 
teeth  of  the  former  from  scratching  it ; heated, 
either  upon  an  iron  frame  with  a spirit  or 
Bunsen  lamp  under  it,  or  over  the  gas,  until, 
if  you  take  a ball  of  etching  ground  and 
touch  the  plate  with  it,  the  ground  melts. 
This  ground  is  made  of  resin,  wax,  and  gum  ; 
the  best  is  made  by  Sellers  in  England  and 
Cadart  in  France.  All  these  materials  can  be 
bought  of  Roberson  or  Hughes  & Kimber. 
Touch  the  hot  plate  in  several  places  with 
the  ground.  It  should  melt  at  once;  then 
take  an  American  etching  roller  (which  I 
think  you  can  only  obtain  at  Roberson’s)  and 
go  over  the  plate  rapidly  with  it  in  every 
direction,  until  the  little  masses  of  melted 
ground  have  been  spread  evenly  and  thinly 
in  a film  all  over  it.  With  a little  practice 
you  should  be  able  to  do  this  in  a couple  of 
minutes,  and  you  can  lay  in  this  way  (which 
is  unknown  virtually  in  England)  a thinner, 


ETCHING. 


127 


harder,  more  even  and  very  much  better 
ground,  with  less  trouble,  than  in  any  other. 
Heat  the  plate  again  a little  more,  and  take 
a bundle  of  wax  tapers  twisted  together  by 
heating  them,  light  them  and  pass  them 
under  the  face  of  the  plate  held,  varnished 
side  downwards,  by  the  vice ; do  not  touch 
the  plate  with  the  taper,  or  the  varnish, 
being  still  melted,  will  come  off,  but  go 
rapidly  back  and  forward,  allowing  the  flame 
only  to  touch  the  surface.  In  a few  minutes 
the  varnish  will  have  been  completely 
blackened  by  the  smoke.  Next,  take  a 
bottle  of  stopping-out  varnish  (which  you 
may  as  well  buy ; don’t  bother  to  make  it) 
and  cover  the  back  and  edges  of  the  plate. 
If  this  is  done  while  the  plate  is  hot,  it  dries 
very  fast,  and  as  soon  as  the  plate  is  cool  it 
is  ready  to  work  on. 

This  is  the  first  stage.  The  waxy  ground 
is  put  on  to  protect  the  plate  from  the  acid 


128 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


with  which  it  is  to  be  bitten,  and  it  must  be 
so  well  made  and  well  put  on,  that  one  can 
draw  through  it,  without  tearing  it  up  and 
without  any  resistance ; also  it  must  adhere 
firmly  to  the  plate,  where  it  is  not  drawn 
through,  and  must  resist  the  acid  perfectly  in 
the  untouched  parts.  The  smoking  is  done 
to  enable  you  to  see  your  lines  in  the  copper, 
light  on  dark  ; this  is  rather  curious  at  first, 
but  you  will  get  used  to  it.  The  stopping- 
out  varnish  is  also  to  protect  the  plate,  and  is 
only  a cheaper  sort  of  ground  dissolved  in  oil 
of  lavender  or  ether.  When  the  plate  is 
cool,  it  should  be  of  a brilliant  uniform  black, 
and  if  there  are  any  dull,  smoky-looking 
places  on  it,  the  ground  is  burnt.  Here  the 
ground  may  be  rubbed  off,  or  will  show 
cracks,  if  you  touch  it,  in  these  places,  and 
the  varnish  should  be  cleaned  off  the  face 
with  turpentine,  the  plate  carefully  dried  and 
reorounded.  Otherwise  the  varnish  will 


ETCHING . 


129 


either  crack  while  you  are  drawing  on  it, 
or  come  oft  in  the  bath  of  acid,  and  your 
work  will  be  spoiled. 

You  draw  upon  the  varnished  plate  with 
needles  or  points ; any  steel  points  will  do, 
from  a knitting-needle  to  the  best  big  point 
you  can  get.  The  small  needles  invented  by 
Mr.  Whistler  I find  the  best;  but  this  is  a 
personal  liking.  They  are  of  all  shapes  and 
sizes.  You  may  commence  and  draw  in 
your  entire  subject,  only  remembering  that 
you  must  leave  your  foreground  lines  further 
apart  than  those  in  the  distance. 

You  may  make  your  drawing  either  with 
the  same  needle,  all  over,  or  with  needles  of 
different  sizes ; for  though  one  half  of  the 
art  is  in  the  drawing,  the  other  half,  and  the 
really  characteristic  half,  is  in  the  biting. 
There  is  very  little  to  be  said  about  the 
drawing,  save  that  you  must  draw  just  as 
well  as  ever  you  can  ; you  will  find  out  almost 


10 


130 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


immediately  that  you  have  the  most  respon- 
sive tool  in  your  fingers,  and  that  you  can 
work  with  it  in  any  direction.  Do  not 
bother,  if  you  use  the  same  needle,  because 
the  drawing  looks  flat,  and  the  lines  are  of 
the  same  width  ; the  biting  will  fix  all  that. 
Draw  away ; if  you  are  afraid  to  tackle 
the  copper  straight  away  with  a point, 
paint  your  design  on  it,  with  a little 
Chinese  white,  or,  if  you  have  a pencil 
drawing  of  the  subject,  you  may  make  a 
tracing  from  it,  and  go  over  that,  trans- 
ferring it  to  the  plate ; or  you  may  turn  the 
drawing  face  down  and  run  it  through  a 
copper-plate  press  ; the  drawing  will  come  oft 
on  the  varnished  surface  in  reverse,  and  if 
you  are  doing  a portrait  of  a place  you  must 
otherwise  reverse  it  yourself.  If  you  wish 
to  sketch  from  nature  in  reverse,  put  up  a 
mirror  on  an  easel,  and  turn  your  back  to 
the  subject,  drawing  from  the  picture  in  the 


ETCHING. 


151 


mirror,  for,  you  must  remember,  that  any 
subject  drawn,  as  you  see  it.  on  a copper 
plate,  or  even  a wood-block,  prints  in  reverse. 

Next,  to  bite  or  etch  the  drawing  into  the 
copper  plate,  take  equal  parts  of  nitric  acid 
and  water  and  mix  them  in  a glass-stoppered 
bottle,  some  hours  before  vou  wish  to  use 

j 

the  mixture,  for  there  is  enough  heat  pro- 
duced by  the  chemical  action  to  melt  the 
ground  if  it  is  used  at  once. 

O 

Or  have  a quantity  of  what  is  known  as 
Dutch  mordant  made : this  is  composed  of — 

Two  parts  Chlorate  of  Potash, 

Ten  parts  Hydrochloric  Acid, 

Eighty-eight  parts  water. 

Next,  get  an  ordinary  photographer’s  porce- 
lain or  rubber  bath  or  tray ; lay  the  plate  in 
it,  pour  the  acid  over  it;  in  a few  seconds 
bubbles  will  arise,  in  all  the  lines : brush 
them  away  with  a feather ; leave  the  plate,  if 


132 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


there  is  any  fine  work  on  it,  in  the  bath  for 
only  two  or  three  minutes,  say  for  a light 
sky  ; take  it  out  with  rubber  finger-tips  or  a 

i 

stick,  for  the  acid  will  burn  your  fingers  and 
a drop  will  rot  your  clothes,  staining  them 
light  yellow ; wash  the  plate  thoroughly  in 
clean  water,  dry  it  carefully  with  blotting- 
paper.  Take  some  of  your  stopping-out 
varnish,  thin  it  with  a little  (a  very  little) 
turpentine,  paint  over  the  very  lightest  parts 
of  the  drawing  with  a camel’s-hair  brush 
dipped  in  the  diluted  varnish,  and  thus  stop 
them  out — that  is,  stop  them  from  biting  any 
more  by  painting  them  with  the  varnish. 
Wait  till  the  places  where  you  have  painted 
the  varnish  are  thoroughly  dry  ; then  put  the 
plate  in  the  bath  again  and  bite  the  next 
stronger,  nearer  set  of  lines  ; of  course,  save 
where  the  lines  are  covered  by  the  stop- 
ping-out varnish,  they  will  keep  on  biting. 
Continue  biting  and  stopping  out  till  you  get 


ETCHING. 


133 

to  the  foreground,  where  the  lines  should  now 
be  quite  broad  and  deep  ; take  off  the  ground 
front  and  back  by  washing  it  with  a rag 
dipped  in  turpentine,  dry  it,  and  the  plate  is 
ready  to  print  from. 

Another  method  is  to  commence  by  draw- 
ing in  the  darks,  biting  them,  then  drawing 
in  the  middle  distance,  the  darks  going  on 
biting  all  the  while,  and  finally  the  extreme 
distance,  when  the  whole  plate  will  be  biting 
together  ; by  this  method  no  stopping  out  is 
necessary,  but  in  working  out  of  doors  it  is 
awkward  to  carry  baths  and  acid  around  with 
one,  otherwise  one  must  run  back  to  the 
studio,  to  bite  between  each  stage.  But 
these  two  methods  can  be  mixed  up,  and 
frequently  are,  and  you  may  also  work  in  the 
bath,  drawing  lines  through  or  over  others, 
thus  getting  richness  while  the  biting  is  going 
on.  The  bad  fumes  which  are  given  off 
during  the  biting  are  not  dangerous.  In 


134 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


working  writh  the  Dutch  mordant,  which 
bites  slower  than  nitric  acid  and  makes 
no  bubbles,  but  bites  straight  down,  while 
nitric  acid  enlarges  the  lines  laterally,  you 
will  inhale  much  of  the  fumes,  but  they 
won’t  hurt  you.  Although  you  do  not  see 
any  action  with  the  Dutch  mordant,  brush 
the  lines  with  a feather,  else  a deposit  is 
formed  and  they  will  bite  unevenly. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  tell  when  a plate  is 
well  bitten,  the  biting  is  very  difficult,  but  on 
taking  it  out  of  the  bath  and  holding  it  on  a 
level  with  your  eye,  you  can  see  the  bitten 
lines  ; you  can  also  feel  the  biting  with  a 
needle,  and  you  may  take  off  a bit  of  the 
varnish  with  your  thumb-nail  or  turpentine 
and  look  at  the  lines,  re-covering  them  again 
with  the  stopping-out  varnish  ; but  after  this, 
of  course,  they  will  not  bite  in  that  place. 

Again,  the  lines  do  not  bite  evenly ; where 
they  are  close  together  they  bite  faster,  and, 


ETCHING. 


T *%  - 
1 

after  the  plate  has  been  in  the  acid  some 
time,  it  may  change  its  speed  of  biting  ; 
differences  of  atmosphere  and  temperature 
affect  it  even  with  the  same  acid  on  the 
same  day ; if  the  nitric  acid  is  too  weak 
add  more  acid  ; if  too  strong  pour  in 
water,  and  quick,  else  the  ground  will  come 
off : it  is  too  strong  when  it  boils  and 
bubbles  all  over  ; it  is  too  weak  when  there 
are  no  bubbles.  Dutch  mordant  eats  always 
slowly,  and  never,  so  far  as  I know*,  destroys 
the  ground.  At  the  last,  for  very  strong 
darks,  you  may  sometimes  use  a little  pure 
nitric  acid,  but  it  will  most  likely  tear  up  the 
ground,  and  if  you  leave  it  long  enough  will 
spoil  all  your  lines,  giving  you  only  a great 
black  hole.  These  are  the  systems  employed 
by  all  etchers  ; the  lengthy  dissertations  about 
white  ground,  silver  ground,  positive  and 
negative  processes,  need  not  concern  you, 
they  are  never  practised,  and  mostly  un- 


136 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


known  to  the  best  men.  These  simple 
directions  should  enable  you  to  produce 
artistic  plates,  if  you  have  the  necessary 
ability.  Still,  when  you  have  had  a proof 
of  your  plate  pulled — I will  talk  of  printing- 
in  the  next  lecture — you  will  find  that  there 
are  all  sorts  of  imperfections  in  it,  possibly 
holes,  places  where  it  is  not  bitten  enough  or 
too  much  bitten,  or  that  it  is  too  dark  or  too 
light  all  over  ; it  is  but  seldom  that  a plate 
is  right  when  the  first  proof  is  pulled.  If 
you  find  a hole  bitten  in  it,  take  a burnishing 
tool,  flatten  the  hole  down  as  much  as 
possible,  find  the  place  on  the  back  with 
a pair  of  calipers,  hammer  it  up  from  the 
back,  placing  it  on  an  anvil,  burnish  it  again 
and  polish  the  surface  with  charcoal,  oil,  and 
rags ; revarnish  the  place,  redraw,  and  rebite 
it.  If  it  is  only  a small  place  you  may  take 
up  some  nitric  acid  on  a feather,  and  paint 
the  little  spot  to  be  rebitten  with  that.  A 


ETCHING. 


137 


few  drops  of  the  acid  have  nearly  as  much 
power  as  a great  deal.  In  fact  you  may 
paint  the  face  of  your  plate  with  acid  and  do 
your  biting  in  that  way,  without  ever  im- 
mersing it  in  the  bath  at  all.  If  it  is  too 
much  bitten  it  must  be  rubbed  down  with 
charcoal  and  oil,  a tedious  process.  If  it 
is  too  light  it  must  be  rebitten  all  over ; then 
take  a rebiting  roller,  putting  some  liquid 
etching  ground  on  a separate  plate,  take 
the  ground  up  on  the  roller  and  roll  the  face 
of  the  plate  very  carefully  ; the  ground 
should  cover  the  face  without  going  into 
any  of  the  lines ; heat  it  very  slightly  to 
dry  the  ground,  leave  it  for  a day  or  so 
and  then  bite  as  before.  If  there  are 
places  where  lines  want  joining  or  little 
touches  of  dark  would  be  effective,  put  them 
in  with  a graver  or  a point. 

You  may  use  a graver  altogether,  and 
produce  a line  engraving  ; or  a point, 


138  THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 

either  steel  or  diamond,  and  make  what 
is  known  as  a dry  - point  etching,  that 
is,  merely  a scratched  drawing  on  the 
copper;  the  point  throws  up,  as  you  draw 
with  it,  a furrow,  which  is  greater  or  less  as 
you  incline  the  point,  and  this  holds  the 
ink,  and  is  called  burr,  and  gives  for  a few 
proofs  great  richness;  a steel  face  can,  how- 
ever, be  put  on  the  copper  plate,  and  any 
number  of  pulls  may  be  taken.  The  dif- 

i 

ference  between  the  cutting  of  lines  with  a 
graver  and  the  drawing  of  them  with  a point 
is  this  : the  graver,  both  in  metal  and  wood, 
is  pushed  from  one  ; the  point  in  etching, 
and  even  the  knives  in  wood  cutting,  are 
drawn  toward  one. 

Messrs.  Roberson  have  invented  a plate 
of  celluloid  which,  for  dry  point  work,  seems 
to  be  fairly  good,  and  as  this  plate  is  white 
or  cream-coloured,  as  one  draws  on  it  the 
lines  may  be  filled  up  with  paint,  and  one 


ETCHING. 


T39 


may  thus  see  the  drawing  as  one  works.  Of 
course,  the  same  thing  may  be  done  with 
dry  point  on  copper.  The  great  advantage 
of  the  celluloid  is  its  lightness.  It  must  not, 
however,  be  heated  in  printing,  otherwise  it 
will  be  ruined.  Many  etchers  are  now 
making  experiments  with  aluminium,  but  no 
certain  results  have  as  yet  been  obtained. 

There  are  many  other  forms  of  engraving 
included  under  the  title  of  Etching,  although, 
properly  speaking,  they  have  nothing  to  do 
with  it. 

Aquatint : a ground,  made  by  deposit- 
ing powdered  resin  in  solution  with  spirits 
of  wine,  is  poured  on  the  plate,  slightly 
heated,  and  as  it  dries  the  resin  adheres  to 
the  plate  and  cracks  up  irregularly  ; a draw- 
ing may  be  made  on  this,  and  stopped  out 
in  the  usual  way.  Or  powdered  resin  may 
be  sprinkled  on  the  plate,  heated,  when  it 
will  adhere,  or  the  plate  may  be  placed  in 


140 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS . 


a box  containing  resin  in  very  fine  powder, 
heated,  and  the  box  shaken ; the  resin  will 
settle  on  it  and  produce  the  ground. 

A very  similar  ground  may  be  made  by 
passing  the  ordinarily-grounded  plate  through 
a copper-plate  printing-press,  with  a piece 
of  sandpaper  over  it,  three  or  four  times, 
then  the  design  may  be  painted  on  it  in 
stopping-out  varnish,  and  at  times  a very 
good  result  may  be  obtained.  Lines  may 
be  put  in,  etched  before  the  ground  is  laid  ; 
but  personally  I don’t  like  the  lines  at  all ; 
without  them  the  result  is  rather  like  a 
bitten  painting.  Silk  and  canvas  can  also 
be  placed  on  the  grounded  plate,  which  is 
then  run  through  the  press,  to  get  tints  in 
the  ground. 

O 

Tints  may  be  obtained  after  the  plate  is 
bitten  by  painting  it  with  olive  oil  and 
sprinkling  flowers  of  sulphur  on  it,  which 
gives  a very  charming  tint,  but  it  does  not 


ETCHING. 


141 


last  long ; I believe  that  if  acid  is  poured 
over  it,  it  may  last  better.  Mr.  Frank 
Short  says  so,  but  I have  never  tried  the 
experiment. 

Soft  ground  etchings  are  made  by  mixing 
etching  ground  and  tallow  together  in  equal 
proportions,  covering  the  plate  with  this 
composition  by  means  of  the  roller  : that  is, 
put  some  of  the  composition  on  a clean 
plate,  pass  the  roller  over  it  till  it  is  covered 
with  the  soft  ground,  and  then  roll  it  on  to 
the  plate  on  which  you  propose  to  work, 
smoke  it  and  then  stretch  a piece  of  rough- 
grained or  lined  drawing  paper  over  the 
face,  as  paper  is  stretched  for  making 
water-colours,  draw  upon  this  with  a lead 
pencil  and  then  carefully  take  the  paper 
off ; you  must  not  rest  on  or  touch  the 
plate  with  your  fingers ; the  ground  comes 
away  with  the  paper  where  the  pencil 
has  passed,  and  the  design  is  seen  on  the 


/ 


1 42  THE  ILL  US  TEA  TION  OF  BOOKS . 

copper,  and  is  then  to  be  bitten  in  as  in 
ordinary  etching. 

Mezzotint  is  also  included,  for  some  un- 
known reason,  with  etching.  The  face  of 
the  plate  is  roughened  in  every  direction 
by  going  over  it  with  a toothed  instrument 
called  a rocker,  until  it  will  print  perfectly 
black ; the  design  is  then  traced  on  it ; the 
drawing  is  made  by  scraping  down  the 

1 

lights,  and  finally  by  burnishing  the  whites 
quite  smooth. 

Tint  effects  can  also  be  obtained  by  a 
smooth-toothed  wheel,  the  roulette,  the  same 
as  that  used  by  process  engravers ; only 
here  it  produces  blacks,  while  they  use  it 
to  get  lights. 

Monotypes,  that  is  paintings  made  in 
colour  or  black  and  white  on  a bare  copper 
plate  in  the  usual  way,  though  they  must 
be  handled  thinly,  may  be  passed  through 
the  press,  and  they  will  yield  one  exquisitely 


ETCHING . 


M3 

soft  and  delicate  impression.  The  electro- 
typing  and  duplicating  of  them  changes 
their  character  and  value  entirely  : it  is  a 
ridiculous  and  inartistic  proceeding. 

But  after  going  through  all  this  list, — I 
have  barely  referred  to  steel  engraving  in 
line,  which,  as  I have  said,  is  only  working 
with  an  ordinary  graver  in  steel,  and  is  slow 
and  tedious,  unsatisfactory  drudgery ; or 
to  stipple  engraving,  dotting  and  biting  in 
dots,  instead  of  lines,  as  practised  by  Bar- 
tolozzi, — one  comes  back  to  the  simple 
method  I described  at  first,  the  method 
with  some  improvements  of  Rembrandt, 
the  method  of  Whistler,  or  in  dry  point 
the  method  of  Helleu ; and  what  is  good 
enough  for  those  masters  should  be  good 
enough  for  you. 


LECTURE  IX. 


THE  PRINTING  OF  ETCHINGS. 

HICH  is  the  more  interesting  and 


amusing — the  drawing,  biting,  or 
printing  of  an  etching  has  never  been 
decided.  But  no  artist  is  willing,  if  he  can 
help  it.  to  allow  any  one  else,  once  he  has 
mastered  the  method  of  work,  to  perform 
any  part  of  the  operation  for  him. 

The  printing  of  an  etching  is,  in  theory, 
very  simple  ; in  practice,  it  is  most  difficult, 
but  most  delightful. 

The  plate  being  bitten,  as  I have  described 
in  a previous  lecture,  must  now  be  printed, 
for  the  prints  from  it,  and  not  the  plate  itself, 


*44 


THE  PRINTING  OF  ETCHINGS. 


145 


are  the  end  of  etching — reallv  of  all  illus- 
tration. 

You  will  have  to  spend  several  pounds 
on  an  etching  outfit,  so  vou  had  better  get 
a good  one.  The  small  ones,  including  press, 
ink,  chemicals,  quite  complete,  sold  by  Rober- 
son, of  99,  Long  Acre,  are  most  excellent 
as  far  as  they  go,  for  small  plates,  and  taking 
round  the  country  with  one  on  a sketching 
tour ; but  for  serious  work,  a more  practical 
set  of  tools  is  necessary.  Therefore  I would 
advise  you  first  to  take  lessons  of  a good 
etcher,  who  will  allow  you  to  work  with  him, 
or  to  go  to  a printer  and  get  him  to  show 
you  how  the  work  is  done. 

This  is  the  method  : the  first  thing  to  do 
is  to  obtain  some  good  handmade  paper, 
almost  all  old  paper  is  excellent ; it  should 
be  unruled,  of  course ; often  the  tone  of  it 
is  lovely,  and  it  may  contain  most  beautiful 
water-marks.  I am  referring  to  Dutch, 


146 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


French,  English,  or  German  papers  of  at 
least  a century  old.  At  times  you  may  be  able 
to  pick  up  old  ledgers,  account-books,  or 
packages  of  unprinted  paper  ; treasure  them 
up ; if  you  don’t  print  etchings  on  them,  there 
is  nothing  more  delightful  to  draw  upon. 
There  are  also  Japanese  and  India  papers, 
which  give  most  beautiful  delicate  translu- 
cent effect  to  prints.  Vellum,  parchment,  and 
even  silk  or  satin  may  be  printed  on.  But 
as  a general  rule  the  old  handmade  Dutch 

o 

paper  is  the  most  satisfactory,  if  you  can 
get  it.  For  ordinary  work  and  experiments, 
modern  paper  is  quite  good  enough,  and 
very  good  handmade  paper  can  be  obtained 
from  Roberson’s.  Let  us  suppose  you  are 
going  to  print ; twenty-four  hours  before, 
take  several  sheets  of  paper,  rather  more 
than  you  want,  in  case  of  failure  or  for  any 
other  reason ; cut  the  sheets  the  size  you 
desire  them,  a little  larger  than  the  plate* 


THE  PRINTING  OF  ETCHINGS. 


147 


so  as  to  leave  a decent  margin.  Cut  the 
paper  first;  Japanese  paper,  for  example, 
cannot  easily  be  cut  when  it  is  wet.  Get 
a sheet  of  window  glass,  lay  it  flat  on  a table, 
take  the  first  sheet  of  paper  and  damp  it  on 
one  side  by  passing  a wet  sponge  over  it, 
lay  it  on  the  glass  ; on  top  of  this  sheet  lay 
another  dry  one ; damp  the  top  of  that  with 
the  sponge  ; and  continue  laying  down  sheets 
and  damping  their  upper  faces  till  you  have 
enough ; put  another  sheet  of  window  glass 
on  the  top,  and  a heavy  weight  upon  it ; in 
a day  the  whole  mass  should  be  completely 
dampened  all  through.  I believe  the  same 
thing  can  be  done  by  a copying  press  and 
book,  and  I have  heard  it  is  so  done  by 
lithographers,  but  the  way  I have  described 
is  the  usual  one  that  is  followed  by  plate 
printers.  The  next  thing  is  the  press.  A 
good  secondhand  one  may  be  bought  at 
Hughes  & Kimber  s,  West  Harding  Street, 


148 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


Fetter  Lane,  for  about  five  pounds.  Much 
depends,  however,  on  the  size  and  finish. 
You  should  have  it  brought  to  your  studio, 
set  up  and  adjusted  for  you  by  skilled  work- 
men. Then  you  must  buy  a heater  and  a 
jigger  for  your  plates,  ink,  oil,  canvas,  and 
a number  of  other  things,  dabbers,  a muller, 
an  ink-slab,  and  a big  palette  knife  ; all  these 
will  run  up  a bill  of  ten  pounds  or  so. 

But  having  your  press  and  other  things, 
let  us  go  to  work : light  the  gas-burners 
under  the  heater  which  you  have  bought  ; 
if  too  much  flame  comes  out  and  makes  the 
iron  top  too  hot,  plug  up  some  of  the  jets. 
Put  your  plate  on  the  top  of  the  heater. 
First,  however,  see  that  your  press  is  ad- 
justed, so  that  the  plate  will  fit  in.  To  do 
this,  put  a piece  of  paper  on  the  top  of  the 
plate  and  run  it  in  the  press  to  try  it,  and  see 
if  it  goes  under  the  roller  without  tearing  the 
paper.  Take  some  of  the  ink  out  of  the 


mm k 


■ • 

THE  PRINTING  OF  ETCHINGS.  149 

can,  or  better,  get  it  in  powder,  put  it  on 
the  ink-slab  and  mix  it  with  oil  with  the 
palette  knife ; then  take  the  muller  and  grind 
the  ink  until  it  is  thoroughly  ground  and 

0 

mixed  and  of  about  the  thickness  of  paint 
as  it  comes  out  of  the  tube.  But  each  plate 
will  require  more  or  less  oil  or  colour,  and 
some  brown,  red,  or  possibly  blue  mixed 
with  it  to  take  off  the  crude  raw  look  which 
pure  black  often  has  in  the  print.  The  plate 
being  now  warm,  not  so  hot  as  to  boil  or 
burn  the  ink,  dab  with  a dabber  the  ink 
from  the  slab  all  over  the  face  of  the  plate 
(it  is  warmed  to  wipe  the  ink  off  easily),  slide 

t 

it  from  the  heater  to  the  wooden  box  called 
a jigger,  which  must  be  placed  alongside 
the  former.  You  should  get  a printer  to 
arrange  your  things  for  you.  Take  a piece 
of  the  rag  or  canvas  for  wiping,  double  it 
carefully  and  loosely  in  your  hand — this 
requires  much  practice — and  remove  all  the 


1 50  THE  ILL  USTRA  T10N  OF  BOOKS. 

ink  which  is  on  the  surface  of  the  plate. 
Even  after  you  have  wiped  it  some  time,  an 
oily  film  will  remain,  which,  unless  you  polish 
the  plate  with  whiting  rubbed  on  your 
hand,  you  cannot  remove,  and  you  do  not 
want  to,  because  the  oil  gives  a delicious 
tone  to  the  print.  Some  ink  may  be  left 
in  places  on  the  surface  to  increase  and 
strengthen  the  work,  but  what  you  must 
learn  to  do  is  not  to  wipe  any  of  the  ink  out 
of  the  bitten  lines.  This  is  very  difficult, 
and  if  you  do  wipe  it  out,  you  must  com- 
mence all  over  again,  only  the  chances  are 
that  you  will  know  nothing  about  this  until 
the  plate  is  printed.  The  colour  may  also 
be  increased  by  going  over  the  surface  of  the 
plate,  having  again  warmed  it,  if  it  has  be- 
come cool,  with  a bit  of  soft  taffatas  silk 
with  a trembling  muscular  motion  of  the  arm 
and  fingers.  This  action,  called  retroussage, 
which  must  be  seen  to  be  understood,  drags 


THE  PRINTING  OF  ETCHINGS.  151 

the  ink  slightly  over  the  surface  of  the  plate 
without  taking  much  out  of  the  lines. 

Now  take  off  the  weights  from  your  paper, 
take  up  a sheet,  which  should  be  thoroughly 
damped,  first  brushing  it  with  a soft  brush 
to  remove  any  drops  of  water  or  dirt  or  dust. 
The  paper  should  be  placed  near  the  press. 
Put  the  plate  face  upwards  on  the  press, 
on  which  the  blankets  have  been  properly 
arranged — you  must  see  this  done  for  your- 
selves— the  plate  underneath  of  course  ; lay 
the  sheet  of  damp  paper  on  the  face  of  the 
plate  and  run  it  through  the  press  once  ; it 
is  well  to  put  a sheet  of  ordinary  thick  paper 
on  the  top  of  the  damp  sheet,  otherwise  the 
latter  will  stick  to  the  blankets  ; raise  the 
blankets  and  take  up  the  first  sheet  of  paper, 
the  print  will  most  likely  adhere  to  that,  if  it 
does  not,  take  it  up  carefully  by  one  edge,  it 
will  come  away  from  the  copper,  and  you 
will  find  the  print  on  the  under  side  of  it. 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


152 


Japanese  and  India  prints  require  very  care- 
ful handling,  especially  the  latter.  They  are 
usually  printed  on  to  a sheet  of  plate  paper 
by  dusting  it,  or  the  back  of  the  India  paper, 
with  flour  ; this,  on  passing  through  the  press, 
is  made  into  paste  by  the  dampness  of  the 
India  paper,  and  they  are  thus  moulded 
together. 

As  soon  as  the  prints  are  taken  off  the 
press,  put  them  between  sheets  of  blotting 
paper  and  allow  them  to  dry  for  some  time, 
they  will  come  out  flat ; if  you  neglect  this, 
they  will  crinkle  up  very  badly,  and  are 
difficult  to  get  smooth  again. 

This  is  the  way  a copper  plate  is  printed, 
but  you  must  see  it  done  and  practise  for  a 
long  time  before  you  can  do  it  decently. 

Colour  prints  from  copper  plates  may  be 
made  in  one  or  more  ways.  The  various 
colours  may  be  put  on  by  applying  them 
where  they  are  wanted  with  stumps,  or  the 


THE  PRINTING  OF  ETCHINGS. 


*53 


plate  may  be  painted  by  applying  the  colours 
with  brushes.  Several  plates  may  be  used, 
just  as  in  lithography  or  coloured  block 
printing,  and  these  coloured  plates  wiped  as 
I have  been  describing.  Many  prints,  how- 
ever, are  coloured  by  hand  after  they  are 
printed. 

Mezzotints,  acquatints,  steel  engravings, 
&c.,  are  printed  in  the  same  way  as  copper- 
plates. The  rubbing  with  the  canvas  and 
the  hand,  and  the  tremendous  pressure  to 
which  the  plates  are  subjected,  quickly  spoil 
the  clearness  and  sharpness  of  the  lines ; 
therefore  if  any  large  number  of  prints  are 

wanted,  a coating  of  steel  is  put  on  the 

% 

face  of  the  copper-plate  by  steel-plating  it ; 
this  protects  the  copper,  and  as  soon  as  the 
steel  facing  shows  signs  of  wear  it  may  be 
removed,  and  a new  film  of  steel  applied  ; 
hence  an  unlimited  edition  can  be  printed 
in  time  from  a copper  plate.  If  it  is 


154  THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 

\ 

necessary  that  the  printing  should  be  done 
more  rapidly,  electrotypes  can  be  made 
from  the  original  copper-plate  (see  electro- 
type and  stereotype  Lecture),  and  several 
printers  can  then  work  on  these  electrotypes 
at  the  same  time.  The  electrotypes  are 
rarely  equal  to  the  originals. 

Such  is  a brief  outline  of  the  method  ol 
printing  copper  plates ; but  I cannot  too 
strongly  impress  upon  you  the  fact  that  it  is 
a handicraft  which,  though  most  interesting, 
requires  long  apprenticeship,  with  a master 
printer,  and  in  one’s  studio,  before  good 
results  can  be  obtained. 


LECTURE  X 


PHOTOGRAVURE  AND  PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHY , 

ETC. 


HESE  processes  or  methods  of  re- 


production are  the  outcome  of  the 
endeavour  to  supersede  the  artist  and  en- 
graver. They  are  quite  mechanical,  or 
should  be ; in  fact  the  less  evidence  there 
is  of  any  intervention  on  the  part  of  the 
operator  or  maker  of  a photographic  plate, 
the  better  it  will  be  for  the  work  which 
is  being  reproduced  ; still,  if  an  artist  turns 
his  attention  to  these  processes,  the  finest 
results  are  obtained,  even  though  he  must 
completely  efface  himself  in  the  work.  M. 


155 


1 56  THE  ILL  USTRA  TION  OF  BOOKS. 

Amand  Durand  made  the  best  photo- 
gravures ever  produced  because  he  was  an 
artist.  No  mere  photographic  or  mecha- 
nical engraver  ever  approached  him. 

The  theory  of  photogravure  and  photo- 
lithography, in  the  best  work,  is  the  same 
as  that  of  photo-engraving,  which  is  described 
in  a previous  Lecture.  In  photogravure  a 
photograph  of  a drawing  is  usually  made  on 
a sensitised  copper  plate  ; this  is  coated  with 
some  acid-resisting  varnish,  but  when  the 
varnished  plate  is  washed  with  water  or 
some  acid,  the  varnish  covering  the  picture 
on  the  plate  comes  away,  leaving  the  picture 
on  the  bare  copper.  This  is  then  bitten  in 
exactly  the  same  way  as  an  etching,  the 
success  of  the  plate  depending  entirely  on 
the  artistic  intelligence  of  the  person  who 
does  the  biting.  Or  else  the  photographic 
print  is  made  on  the  varnish  itself  just 
exactly  in  the  same  way  as  for  a zinc  block  ; 


PHOTOGRAVURE , ETC. 


157 


only  in  this  case  the  picture  is  washed  away 
and  not  the  surrounding  portions ; the  biting 
is  then  proceeded  with. 

There  are  also  many  other  processes 
ol  photogravure,  while  heliotype,  autotype, 
Woodbury-type,  collotype,  are  closely  allied 
to  it.  The  word  type  is  probably  used 
simply  because  by  none  of  these  methods 
can  the  plates  be  used  with  letterpress.  All 
these  processes,  however,  are  very  compli- 
cated, require  expensive  machinery,  are  quite 
outside  the  field  of  art,  most  secret,  and, 
except  theoretically,  of  little  importance  to 
you. 

A good  photogravure,  for  example,  by 
Amand  Durand  or  Ch.  Dujardin  is  often 
a most  excellent  reproduction  of  a line- 
drawing or  an  etching — so  good,  in  fact, 
as  to  be  almost  indistinguishable  from  an 
etching.  But  to  endeavour  to  palm  off  pen 
drawings  as  etchings,  when  they  have  been 


158 


THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 


reproduced  in  some  such  way,  is  to  act  the 
part  of  a common  swindler. 

Photo-lithography  is  exactly  the  same  as 
photo-zincography  — process  block-making. 
The  drawing  is  photographed  on  to  transfer 
paper,  covered  with  lithographic  ink  and 
transferred  to  the  stone  like  any  other  litho- 
graph. This  is  a mechanical  process  ; there 
are  a number  of  ways  of  getting  the  drawing- 
on  to  the  stone,  and  the  results  are  described 
under  many  names.  Collotypes  and  other 
varieties  of  photographic  prints  are  made 
from  gelatine  or  other  films ; they  require 
expensive  machines  to  produce,  they  are  all 
mechanical  processes  which  you  could  not 
readily  use  unless  you  went  into  the  busi- 
ness, and  are  quite  outside  your  art. 

One  is  being  continually  shown  processes 
which  are  going  to  revolutionise  engraving 
and  incidentally  do  away  with  the  artist  ; 
this  has  pot  yet  been  accomplished.  But 


PHOTOGRAVURE , ETC. 


*59 


just  as  one  sees  to-day  the  momentary 
triumph  of  the  photographer — or  rather  of 
the  person  who  is  exploiting  the  poor  photo- 
grapher— one  may  remember  that  chromos 
have  not  annihilated  painting,  nor  can  the 
photograph  ever  be  anything  more  than  a 
useful  aid  to  illustration. 


1 


1 


LECTURE  XI. 


MAKING  READY  FOR  THE  PRINTING  PRESS. 


T T AVING  made  your  drawing,  had  it 
A A reproduced  by  one  of  the  methods 
I described,  you  must  now  have  it  printed. 

Excepting  in  the  case  of  very  limited  fine 
editions  of  not  more  than  one  hundred 
copies,  the  original  plates  or  blocks  on  which 
the  designs  have  been  engraved  are  very 
seldom  used,  because  if  anything  should 
happen  to  the  blocks  or  plates  they  would 
have  to  be  done  over  again.  So  copies  of 
them,  called  electrotypes  and  sometimes 
stereotypes,  are  made.  The  electrotype  of  a 
wood  or  metal  block  or  plate  is  produced  in 


MAKING  READY  FOR  THE  PRESS.  161 

the  same  way  as  an  electrotype  of  any  other 
object,  by  usually  taking  a wax  cast  of  it, 
putting  the  cast  in  an  electrotyping  bath, 
when  a shell  of  copper  is  deposited  upon  it. 
As  many  of  these  wax  casts  may  be  made  as 
are  wanted,  and  as  many  shells  are  deposited 
as  desired.  These  copper  shells  are  then 
backed  up  with  wood  or  metal  and  are  ready 
to  print  from.  They  are  wonderfully  cheaply 
and  quickly  turned  out,  and  in  the  case  ol 
magazines  and  books,  for  which  a large 
circulation  is  expected,  are  always  used  ; and 
it  is  almost,  with  good  work,  impossible  to  tell 
the  difference  between  the  electrotype,  and 
the  original ; from  a process  block  or  wood 

f 

engraving,  while  the  original  block  is  pre- 
served for  making  additional  electrotypes  for 
future  editions.  In  the  case  of  cheap  books, 
or  newspapers  with  illustrations,  the  Daily 
Graphic , for  example — the  Chronicle  was 
printed  almost  altogether  from  the  original 


12 


1 62  THE  ILL  US  TEA  TION  OF  BOOKS. 

blocks,  or  electrotypes — the  page  of  type  i? 
set  up  with  the  original  blocks  in  it,  and  this 
is  stereotyped  to  print  from  ; that  is,  a papier 
mache  mould  is  made  of  the  entire  page  of 
type  and  illustrations,  either  by  pounding 
down  on  to  it,  with  a heavy  brush,  a thick 
sheet  of  papier  mache  till  the  entire  page  is 
moulded  into  the  pulpy  papier  mache,  or  by 
covering  it  with  successive  sheets  of  thin 
damp  paper  until  a solid  mould  or  matrix  of 
paper  is  made  on  the  type  ; this  matrix  is 
hardened  and  placed  in  a curved  steel  case, 
and  type  metal  poured  into  the  case  upon  the 
paper  mould  ; as  soon  as  the  type  metal  has 
cooled  it  is  taken  out,  and  a perfect  cast  of 
the  page  is  seen  in  metal,  curved  so  that  it 
will  fit  on  the  cylinder  of  the  printing  press. 
If  there  are  no  illustrations,  it  may  be  printed 
right  off,  without  further  preparation  ; but  if 
the  page  contains  illustrations,  in  order  to  get 
the  proper  amount  of  colour  on  the  blacks, 


MAKING  READY  FOR  THE  PRESS.  i6j 

and  the  delicacy  of  the  greys,  little  pieces  of 
paper  must  be  put  over  and  under  the  illus- 
trations, on  the  printing  press,  to  bring  out 
their  colour,  by  increasing  or  lessening  the 
pressure.  This  is  the  way  in  which  it  is 
done  : a man,  called  the  overlay  cutter,  has 
several  proofs  of  the  illustration  given  him, 
and  he  cuts  them  out  so  as  to  produce  a 
series  of  skeleton  designs,  one  containing 
only  the  blacks,  another  the  blacks  and  dark 
greys,  the  third  the  blacks,  dark  and  light 
greys,  and  so  on  ; these  he  pastes  on  the  top 
of  each  other,  forming  the  picture  in  relief, 
and  this  relief  picture  is  either  placed  under 
the  block  to  be  printed  from,  or  else  on  the 
opposite  cylinder  under  the  paper  on  which 
the  picture  is  to  be  printed — it  must  be  put 
on  very  accurately  and  firmly,  for  if  it  slips 
it  will  ruin  the  whole  page.  All  this  work 
connected  with  printing  is  most  interesting, 
most  complicated,  and  most  wonderfully  per- 


1 64  THE  ILEUS TR A TION  OF  BOOKS. 

formed.  In  order  to  understand  it  thoroughly, 
you  must  go  and  work  in  a printing  office  ; 
all  illustrators  should  learn  at  least  how  over- 
lays are  made,  how  to  correct  them,  and  how 
to  work  on  blocks  or  electros,  though  this  is 
really  the  duty  of  the  engraver  ; when  they 
are  on  the  printing  press,  little  things  may 
happen  which  may  make  or  mar  a whole 

4 

book,  which  only  the  artist  can  detect,  and 
which  he  should  be  able  to  set  right.  There- 
fore if  you  are  making  a beautiful  book,  you 
should  not  only  see  all  the  engraver’s  proofs 
of  your  drawings,  but  the  printer’s  proofs  as 
well ; all  this  requires  much  work  and  more 
knowledge,  but  unless  you  care  enough  about 
your  work  to  acquire  this  knowledge,  I doubt 
if  you  will  ever  be  a great  success  as  an  illus- 
trator— that  is,  artistically. 

Very  much  has  been  said  lately  about  the 
artist  considering  the  limitations  of  the  print- 
ing press,  the  paper,  and  ink.  Really  to-day 


MAKING  READY  FOR  THE  PRESS. 


165 


with  the  best  engravers,  the  best  printers 

§ , 

and  paper-makers,  there  are  no  limits  to  the 
possibilities  of  reproducing  and  printing 
drawings.  The  limits  are  the  depth  of  the 
publisher’s  pocket.  Almost  any  drawing 
whatever  can  be  reproduced  very  well,  by 
some  means,  provided  the  editor  or  publisher 
will  pay  the  price  charged  for  having  it  repro- 
duced, and  the  engravers  and  printers  have 
the  knowledge  of  their  craft  to  reproduce  it. 
And  if  the  book  or  magazine  will  stand  the 
expense,  it  very  likely  will  pay  the  publisher. 
But  if  you  are  working  for  a magazine,  it  is 
not  likely  that  the  proprietors  can  afford 
photogravures,  therefore  your  work  must  be 
made  so  that  it  will  reproduce  well  by  wood 
engraving  or  process.  And  the  necessity  for 
attention  to  the  mechanical  requirements  of 
drawing,  engraving,  and  printing  increase,  as 
the  price  of  the  book  or  paper  decreases, 
until  when  one  comes  down,  financially,  to 


1 66  THE  ILLUSTRATION  OF  BOOKS. 

the  halfpenny  papers,  only  those  drawings 
can  be  used  which  will  print  at  the  utmost 
speed,  and  with  the  least  care  bestowed  upon 
them,  in  poor  ink  and  cheap  paper.  Still, 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  artistic  quality 
also  should  degenerate ; there  are  men  at 
work  to-day  whose  drawings  would  look  just 
as  well  in  the  halfpenny  evening  papers  as  in 
a three-guinea  book,  and  these  men  are  to  be 
congratulated  on  their  perfect  mastery  of  the 
cheaper  methods  of  reproduction.  Therefore 
try  to  do  good  work  in  your  own  way,  and 
do  not  bother  about  anything  but  whether 
it  will  look  well  on  the  printed  page. 


UNWIN  BROTHERS,  PRINTERS,  LONDON  AND  CHILWOKTli. 


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